New Year New Boat

With the Auk afloat, the future looked a bit dim, with nothing in the pipeline. Then a man from Skye called to see if I could replicate an old boat he had on his family croft. Replicate, perhaps, but restore no, so I suggested one of Mr Oughtred's Tammie Norries, but stretched a little here and there, in a way that is only possible when you build in wood.

The moulds were spaced a wee bit further apart, and hey presto: another 6in, as if by magic.

The pile of larch outside the shed was hauled inside and chopped up into manageable bits, the backbone set up on the bench and before too long the beginnings of a boat started to appear at Viking's old milking parlour by the shores of Loch Broom.

The joy is that the owner is in no tearing rush, which means I can take my time. To date, a couple of weeks into the build and the garboards are on. I am trying a slightly different way of doing the stems. It's a hybrid between cutting a proper rabbet in a solid stem/apron, or splitting the two and working the rabbet into the outer stem, then refitting  it.