Oarlock & Sail Wooden Boat Club

The quarter knees were refined and fastened, and look beautiful!  It’s another one of those things where we see it shaped and in place, and ponder whether we can finish it ‘bright’, with either varnish or oil, instead of painting it like we’d planned.  Before long, we’ll be finishing the entire interior with the wood nicely visible!  But then we ponder a little further, and realize the maintenance requirements increase dramatically with the amount of bright wood.  To that end, the interior of the hull got a coat of primer, and yeah, that looks pretty nice as well!

The lower rub rails were fastened and plugged, and the thwart risers were steamed, bent in place and fastened.

And, after the risers were in place, work got started on the thwarts.  One of the main thwarts is fitted and in place, and the stern sheets (or side seats) are being mocked up, along with the curve at the stern.  The pattern for the thwart knees has been started as well.

It’s exciting to see the interior of the boat coming together, and imagining taking her out for a sail.  It will be interesting to see how the small side deck and coaming will change the look of the boat!

The boat shed is a great place to hang out on a foggy winter day!  Nice and cozy in there when we get the heat on, coffee brewed, and if we’re lucky, a nice selection of Christmas baking to go with it!

Work continues on the Button Swan Providence River boat, fastening gunwales, fitting the quarter knees, and making the thwart risers.

She’s really showing her lines nicely now, with the gunwales in place!

The risers are being fitted, but may need some steaming in order to get them to twist into place.

One of the quarter knees is mostly fitted, with (hopefully) just a little more tweaking to get it to the right place and angle.  Very tricky corner, that! And after the fitting is done, it will need some shaping, to make it less chunky.

We enjoyed the plane workshop led by Brent, learning about some of the many types of woodworking planes.  He brought a big chunk of yellow cedar, and gave us a chance to try out some of the planes.  It was a fun and interesting session!

Happy New Year, and hope to see you in the shop in the coming year – we are looking forward to completing our work on the boat, and launching her!