Resolutions for 2013

Happy Return before she came to our workshop

 Replacing clinker planking

Building a shelter

This year will definitely see Happy Return almost finished. Building on the success of our last year's workshop series, we are designing a number of  exciting, skillbuilding workshops around the refurbishment of this 1961 Stella One Design. If you are interested in the direct, hands-on learning of classic yacht building, fitting out and refurbishement, we will tailor-make a course around your needs. contact us: ruiandanke@gmail.com

Click on any of the photos to view them as a slideshow and follow the progress so far.

Planking almost complete

Steaming ribs

Clinker planking

Steaming rib

Steaming ribs

Resealing the ballast keel with new keel bolts

Deilginis returns home

It's been a great honour and pleasure to have worked on Deilginis - Thankyou all for this great opportunity!
Thank you to William Nixon for this great article he wrote on the Howth 17 website:
http://www.hyc.ie/news/newsview.asp?newsid=676

Deilginis ready for the trip to home harbour: Howth

Deilginis leaves our workshop

 With all the deck fittings back in place, and the trailor serviced for the trip, Deilginis is getting ever closer to being back in the water again.

The finishing touches...

 Deilginis is receiving her finishing touches:
 -The deck seams have been sealed with sikaflex and sanded flush.
- All the deck fittings have been dry-fitted and the deck predrilled for fixing them.
- The cockpit washboard has been refurbished and fitted into the new deck.
- A new mast-collar of laminated purple heart has been fitted.

 Notice how the Rubbing Strake has been fitted a few millimeters below the Sheer to give it that beautiful elegant look.

The Toerails have been set into the Coaming by half an inch, allowing for easy maintenance in the future.

The main deck area has been left unvarnished - this will eventually go a uniform grey and will contrast nicely with the varnished King plank and Coamings. Leaving the deck unvarnished gives it more grip and also makes it easier to maintain.

Swept Deck for Deilginis

There are few things more satisfying than completing a timber swept deck.
  The most important things to get right while preparing the deck is to make the coamings fair and as equal as possible on both sides of the boat, and also to set and mark out the king plank. It is very difficult to hide differences between the two sides.

The king plank has been widened by two cheeks around the mast, just to reinforce it.

 Now that the deck is fully laid, the screw holes will be plugged, and the entire deck sanded to a fair surface. The grooves for the sikaflex will then be corrected with a chisel. It is then ready to seal.

Fairing and painting the hull of Deilginis

Perfecting the coaming before to lay the deck.

Layers and layers of old paint were carved out of the letters .

After much fairing and sanding, the primer is finally applied.

The beginnings of a new deck on Deilginis.

Working from the keel upwards, we have finally come to the satisfying work of laying the deck. The coamings are fitted first, followed by the King plank. The greatest challenge is to make it all work out symmetrically with even planking and the gaps for the black sikaflex pleasing and regular.

The damaged ribs have been replaced , and some of the other ribs refastened. with this work done, the hull is now ready to repaint.

Our new exciting project: Deilginis!

We are very proud to have Deilginis, one of the original Howth Seventeens, in our workshop for repairs and redecking. This is the oldest one-design class in the world! Click here for more on their history.

After what seemed a little like a chinese mind puzzle, we succeeded in fitting Deilginis into our workshop on her trailor. The decking is now being carefully ripped off and the hull scraped.

Scraping the hull is not only essential for the final repainting, it also allows us to examine it carefully for areas which need attention. Several ribs need replacing, so these areas need to be exposed to allow a clean removal of fastenings.
Working on the keelbolts is also much easier with the deck removed - so the sequence with which we go about this job is important.

Timbers, Gunwhales, Stringers, Thwarts...

 We have once again made dramatic progress on our "workshop boat" - together with our four enthusiastic participants of our recent 3-day steaming workshop, the boat is almost ready to ride the waves!
We used oak for the gunwhales and timbers ( ribs), douglas fir for the stringers, rubbing strakes and thwarts.
We have even come up with a name - to be revealed later...

Warming up for our upcoming steaming workshop!

In preparation of our upcoming workshop, we have painted the hull of our student boat and steamed some ribs into it, making sure that we have all the equipment, tools and materials ready for next week.

As always, steaming timber feels like magic - exciting, inspiring. The boat really does feel like a boat now - strong and sturdy.

One just can't stop looking at it...


To participate in our upcoming workshop (4th,5th and 6th of October) contact us:
ruiandanke@gmail.com
tel:0868243073

Swept deck in solid cedar

As part of a complete restoration of a 1969 Borensen Built Dragon, we laid this solid cedar swept deck. The advantage of using cedar is that it is very light. The disadvantage is that it is quite soft - so discipline is required in what shoes are allowed on board.

The cedar was relatively easy to bend and work with.

Our student boat is ready for timbering -out!

 The old west cork clinker boat we began lofting this time last year is now fully planked. Our series of workshops will now continue with steaming in the ribs and gunwhales.
The Steaming Workshop will be held on the 4th,5th and6th of October. Visit http://boatbuildingskills.blogspot.com/ for more details.

Getting ready for the Classic Dinghy Regatta in Schull!

We've been busy with preparations for the first ever Classic Dinghy Regatta to be held in Schull on the 21st and 22nd of July. Visit Sailing The Ettes on facebook for more news...
Here is a picture of some of the prizes we're making - we want every boat to get one - every wooden boat being sailed deserves a prize!

Making wooden boat models with children at Rosscarbery school

As part of the CRAFTed initiative organized by the Crafts Council of Ireland, Anke has been doing a 5 week project with 5th and 6th class of Scoil Naisiunta Mhuire in Rosscarbery.

The enthusiasm and energy of these girls is just amazing!
Using a technique inspired by the "bread and butter half models" ( a 3D modelling technique used by boatbuilders for hundreds of years), they laminated thin pieces of wood into "floating objects.

Even though I had cut out about 200 lozenge shapes ( inspired by the Broighter Boat) of various shapes and sizes - it was difficult for the children to find the exact shapes they wanted.
Spokeshaves were used to shape the pieces. I made special bench hooks to allow easy clamping.

The following week, the models were shaped up using spokeshaves, rasps and sandpaper. this was pretty hard work! The most sought after tool was the spokeshave. We only had four for the whole class ( 22 pupils). I had plenty of rasps and stanley surforms, but the spokeshave was definitely the most effective. For future projects I would definitely invest in more spokeshaves. They are such a great tool for kids!

I made angled clamping sticks onto which the models were screwed.But, I had underestimated the backset of the metal structure under the desk tops - this made it quite tricky to clamp the sticks onto the desks properly. I'll have to work on that one.
Oiling the models at the end of the two hour session was like a well deserved reward for everyone!

Once everyone had oiled their pieces and we had cleaned up the mess ( amazing how the classroom can look like a crazy woodshop in only one hour !) we layed the pieces into a fleet and talked about where we see ourselves in the "class fleet" - sailing in company.

 Designing rigging and sails was the next challenge!