An Dalta: Our student project close to launching

A little over a year ago, we began a series of Boatbuilding workshops which led our students through the whole process of building a traditional clinker boat: from lofting to launching. The product of these intense and enjoyable workshops is "An Dalta", the replica of a hundred year old west cork fishing boat, which formed the starting point of this teaching project.

 An Dalta is now for sale. For more information contact us :
ruiandanke@gmail.com
or 0868243073

Howth17 with Bread&Butter

 Here are some pictures of the "Bread & Butter" process used to create a half-hull model of the Howth 17.
Using a bit of modern technology, paper templates of all the waterlines were created from the original lines drawing.

 The "bread", in this case cedar, is thicknessed to the distance between the waterlines on the profile plan.
While marking the waterlines onto the timber, a few station lines are also transferred, allowing alignement while glueing up.

The "Butter" is, of course the glue. Extra care has to be taken to make sure the pieces are perfectly aligned and all down flat against the sash-clamps.

Drilling before glueing and then inserting one or two dowels can be helpful, but one must bear in mind that  quite a lot  of shaping will take place, so placement of the dowels has to be carefully considered.

 Here you can see the glued up model. Now comes the fun bit of shaping it!

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!