2009 – Page 97 – intheboatshed.net

What John Welsford does with mashed potato

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The transom for John Welsford’s new cruising dinghy design, Pilgrim. Read
about this interesting small boat at his Pilgrim Diaries

Well known New Zealand boat designer, builder and cruiser John Welsford has written tell us about a technique he has developed for testing the rot-resisting properties of unknown timber and plywood:

‘Hi Gav,

‘I thought that you might like to put my comment about mashed spuds in connection with rot testing.

‘Just to stir things up a bit you understand!

‘Rot is due to fungus and needs food, moisture and oxygen in order to grow and spread. Cut off one or more of those and you don’t get rot.

‘Also, rot, like most fungi, spreads far more rapidly in warm conditions.

‘My test method involves placing the sample on a dish in the warmth of the kitchen, and covering it with mashed potato. Potatoes are almost all starch, a form of sugar, and mashing it up with milk brings even more sugars. Mashed potatoes also hold moisture and, being light and fluffy (if made properly) they admit oxygen. So a layer of mashed ‘taties accelerates the rate at which rot takes hold and multiply and is a workable if unusual method of testing wood for susceptibilty for fungal decay. You should see what I do with raspberry jam!

‘Yours, John’

Many thanks John. I might try it some time, though I’d be a bit concerned about this as a practical test. Done properly, it would demand not just well made mash, but would also require brewing up quite a number of different samples. It’s a very interesting idea, but could also be a recipe for trouble in the kitchen that could test more than a piece of wood!

I wonder whether it would work if conducted where no-one goes, round the back of the shed in the summer, and under a plastic sheet?

For more intheboatshed.net posts relating to John Welsford’s boat plans, click here.

For more on John’s plans, see his website; also, there’s a nice new weblog about building a small cruising yacht to his Fafnir plans here.

Photos from the Inishkea Islands

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Deserted village on the Inishkea south island. As usual, click on
the thumbnails for much larger images

Barnacle geese in flight

A couple of days ago, I found this very welcome message from intheboatshed.net reader Duncan Sclare in my inbox. It has got me thinking that it’s more than high time I made a return trip to the West of Ireland to see some more of its wondrful remote Atlantic islands.

‘Hi Gavin,

‘Having read and enjoyed reading intheboatshed for some time now I thought I ought to add a little bit for others to hopefully enjoy.

‘One of my family’s favourite boating destinations is the Inishkea Islands, three miles off the west coast of Co Mayo, where we live.

‘The islands have an interesting history. They were inhabited up to the mid 1930s, but the community never really recovered from the great storm of 1927 when about 45 men mostly fishing from curraghs were drowned off the Mayo and Galway coast, ten of them from the Inishkea Islands.

‘The islanders moved to the nearby mainland and continued to graze animals and fish around the islands, as their descendants still do today.

‘Further back in time around 1900 there was a Norwegian whaling station on the south island. There are many myths and storys including tales of piracy and civil war, and stone-throwing incidents between north and south islands and, of course, various legends about poitín brewing.

‘The two villages on the one on each island are now slowly being reclaimed by nature, as can be seen in the photos.

‘I had the pleasure of meeting one of the last surviving people born on the island this summer. Her daughter and son in law had spent a couple of years doing up her old home, and brought her out on a beautiful August day to see it close up for the first time in almost 70 years.

‘There is a wide variety of wildlife including many grey seals that come ashore in the late autumn to have their pups. Barnacle geese, which give the islands their name, still come down from their breeding sites high up in Greenland to over-winter on the islands.

‘Mayo County Council are now putting together a long over due Conservation and Management Plan that will hopefully secure the islands future for all to enjoy and appreciate without damaging the rather delicate eco-system.

‘An excellent information site can be found here: Insihkea Islands.

‘Doing a bit of boat building myself will mail you if I have anything of substance to report. Keep up the good work

‘Regards, Duncan Sclare’

Many thanks for this Duncan – I’m most grateful you have taken the time to write in with your photos. I’m sure the image of the derelict cottages in particular will be very powerful for many people. Do let us know how your project goes!

For more intheboatshed.net posts about currachs including information about building the boats, click here.

Seal pup photographed on Inishkea

Christmas 12th Night celebrations on the River Thames with the Lion’s Part

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The Holly Man arrives and addresses the crown outside the Globe Theatre on
London’s South Bank. As usual, click on the thumbnails for larger photos

We travelled to the South Bank of the River Thames in London today to see the Holly Man land from a Thames waterman’s cutter and the doughty Lion’s Part perform their carols and Mumming Play. I didn’t get the name of the boat type correct to begin with – so thanks to Chris Partridge for his comment below.

I brought along my fiddle to lend a hand with the music, but by golly it was cold for a fiddler’s fingers. Julie meanwhile took these photos despite the considerable crowd.

The play was as topical and amusing as one could wish, and The Lion’s Part’s troupe of professional actors includes some very sharp performers. I was particularly impressed with their Doctor – the Doctor in these plays always has the best part, but this particular one seemed to have been born to play it.

See similar intheboatshed.net post from last year: http://intheboatshed.net/?p=276

The play in progress; the Turkish Knight; musicians and crowd

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