Three Weeks' Work

Well, here she be; four strakes up and a fifth ready to rove. Can't say I had much to do with them as I left Mattis to get on with things while I headed south for a week. Progress has been reasonably swift as the Arctic Tern fledges in the cow shed and we should have the hull planked up by the end of the week, that'll be week four or 20 working days (give or take).

Interestingly for those who study the economics of wooden boat building, as I quoted on the basis of 36 working days, and there are two of us working, you can see that we should, if four hands are twice as fast as two, be close to finishing her her by now after three weeks, or 30 working days between us. They are not, of course, twice as fast, but it makes things much more enjoyable (if less lucrative). Notwithstanding, I know what I prefer after years working alone.

Now comes the fittng out, the frames, thwarts and all the fiddly structural stuff..

Not much to report, other than that things seem to be going smoothly, after some initial head scratching. The seven strakes are a compromise between the orignal's six and Iain's redrawing at eight. So far we have been able to get the planks out of the larch stock, but the sheerstrake will need to be of Scots pine, I suspect, which will give the topsides a nice contrast, as the larch will weather darker than the pine.