Saint David's Day

Today is Saint David's Day, he is the patron saint of Wales.

Wales is a country in southwest Great Britain known for its rugged coastline, mountainous national parks, distinctive language and Celtic culture. The image above is of the Welsh Dragon and the caption 'Cymru Am Byth' translates as 'Wales For Ever".

For those who don't know where Wales is, here is a map.

I live in Fishguard, on the coast that National Geographical judges to be the second most beautiful coastline in the World

Now back to the boat building.

I have been working on the stem of the boat which I began by drawing it out, full-size, on a large sheet of thin plywood. The dimensions for my drawing come from the plans I bought from Selway Fisher

From the plywood I cut out the stem, it's in three parts:

I then used the plywood as templates to mark out the pieces on a lovely piece of Douglas Fir (120mm x 50mm      4.75 inch x 2 inch)

I now had to adjust the front two moulds (molds) to accept the stem.

Another view

I then began to realise I had problems with the front three moulds: checking their position with the drawing showed me that the stem was not in the correct location. In trying to solve the problem I found myself in danger of going in circles.
   I stood back and thought about it for awhile. I knew what to do: I took a reporters notebook and gave a page to everyone of 12 moulds (molds). I then took exact measurements noting them on the appropriate page. From the plans I wrote in what the measurements should have been and noted the differences, if any.
   Now I knew exactly what to do to put things right. I then took apart the stem, hog, and took down the three mould to rectify each. I will finish them and reassemble tomorrow.
    I wasn't annoyed with errors or the rework: better to find the errors now than when I was planking. So the moral of the story is, I guess, keep rechecking as you go. I had checked well before hand but lots of small errors at one point can cause major errors when other small errors are added to them.
   To the outsider I would point out that there are very few straight edges on a boat to measure from. You can't measure from the floor as it is uneven.     As you get involved in the build you get really tuned in to it - I find the same in painting and writing where the brush and pen take over and you just hold on to them.