We have a new project in the shed – a Davidson dinghy, which has seen some rough times, and we’ll be getting it back into service. It belongs to the Maritime Museum director, and has been resting on the dock near our shed for a month or so. We plan to do a minimally invasive repair of some delamination and hole in the bottom.
We’re not sure how it sustained the damage, but the very rough fiberglass repair was stripped away with the help of Bruce’s heat gun, and the hole was exposed.
The boat is made of 3 layers of veneer, formed and glued into the hull shape – there’s some delamination along the gunwales which we’ll be pouring thinned epoxy resin into, and then we’ll add a more substantial rub strip to reinforce it. Because of the patching job we’ll need to do, we expect that we’ll end up painting it, to avoid a patch-work finish.
Also getting fresh paint is our shed, which was scraped and sanded, and received a nice new colour. We ran out of our ready supply of paint, so we hope to get another coat this weekend, as long as it’s not raining!
And we got word from Kirby and his family, who are refurbishing the Sam Mc which they bought from the club – they’ve got her nearly ready to launch, and looking great!! Nice work!
Meanwhile, our boats are being enjoyed more and more – we’ve had a couple of boats out each Saturday, as well as some weekday sailing. Last Saturday we got the Enke going, and she sails like a dream! Last Wednesday I had her out in a very light wind, and with the gunter rig, she was able to catch the faintest of breezes, and I truly enjoyed ghosting along, getting where I wanted to go. And last night Ingrid and I enjoyed (or should I say survived!) a wild ride in the Button Swan, in rising, gusty wind. Made for an exciting evening, and reinforced the need to install a good reefing system! It was great fun though!
Oarlock and Sail Wooden Boat Club 