Tag: boat

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.

Boat Building Academy student boat launch day December 2008

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Launch day at the Boat Building Academy. As usual, click on the
thumbnails for much larger photos

Boat Building Academy principal Yvonne Green has written to tell us about her students’ big launch day down at Lyme Regis. It looks and sounds wonderfully jolly with such nice weather and such a big crowd of supporters, and it must have been quite an emotional event too.

‘The Boat Building Academy launched seven boats at noon on 10th December – more than from any previous course.

‘The fourteen students who built the boats started the 38 week course on 17th March 2008. The first twelve weeks was spent developing their woodworking skills (some started with none), painting and finishing, making oars, building clinker sections and laminating the stem sections that make up the City & Guilds assessment pieces – they take the Level 3 City & Guilds 2451 technical exams as well as learn how to build boats, and they all passed – in addition to time in the classroom on theory, deciding what boats to build and lofting them.

‘They went down onto the main workshop floor on 16th June this year and started the builds; one traditional clinker, three glued clinker, one strip plank, one stitch and glue and a cold-moulded wherry spiled to simulate carvel. Two of the boats were designed by main instructor for the March 2008 course Mike Broome, and two sets of plans came from the Mystic Seaport Museum .

‘To say we’re proud of the course’s achievement is a massive understatement. Over the last 38 weeks of the course the workshop has not been a beach-side oasis of peace and tranquillity, but the product of all that energy is superb.

‘About a hundred and fifty people walked the boats down to the harbour in brilliant sunshine. Academy director  Tim Gedge said a few words, followed by the Mayor of Lyme Regis, before the real business of the day began and the boats were launched one by one into the water. They all floated, we all cheered… ‘

For more intheboatshed.net posts relating to the Boat Building Academy, click here.

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Nick Smith makes still more progress on the motor launch Lisa

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Lisa’s getting nearer and nearer – but she still some way from being finished

Hampshire traditional boatbuilder Nick Smith has kindly sent some more photos of Lisa, the 17ft motor launch he’s currently building. At first glance she might look as if she’s close to completion – but, as he explains, there’s still a fair way to go.

He writes:

‘Hi Gav:

‘Here are some more photos showing progress on ‘Lisa’.

‘The next tasks are to build the sole boards, engine box and battery box, fit fuel pipeage. engine control lever and cables, exhaust hose, bronze manual bilge pump and electric float pump, fit crutch sockets, fairleads, foredeck cleat, towing cleats, ensign socket and pole, bilge rails, seven coats of varnish, bilge paint and a traditional red antifouling. We used to call antifouling ‘compo’ when I was an apprentice, which was short for ‘composition’ – a paint antifouling people used that was based on arsenic!!!!

‘Yes , thats all! Won’t take five minutes. More next week!

‘Regards Nick’

Thanks fella – I’ve no doubt the owner will be very proud. A trivial point that comes to mind from these photos is about the masking tape – I wonder what people used in the past for that job?

PS – Nick had this to say about the masking tape. It sounds like a slice of real life to me:

‘As for masking tape, when I was apprenticed there wasn’t a roll in the yard, everything was cut-in with a brush, so thats what I learned to do. It was ok cutting-in a waterline if you were good, but successive years of cutting-in by someone inept would end up with the line creeping up by 1/2in every year, and sometimes it looked like a permanent wave pattern had been painted in!
‘Likewise, nothing was templated. “Template” was a dirty word and there was no 1/8in template ply in the place, as it was thought a waste of money.

‘No, they would much rather pick up the piece of wood to be used, even if it was teak, rough mark it, cut it , and plane it to fit, plenty of pieces went through the bandsaw and back home for kindling, not by me of course, but learning that way was good for me as you had to get it right first time. As an apprentice, when I got it wrong I was told I was a ‘f****** c***’ , as I wasn’t keen on being called that I soon learned to get it right first time every time. When I did well the best I got was to be told I was “not bad for a boy”, but then I knew I had arrived.’

Nick has sent us quite a few photos of the Lisa project over the past few weeks.  If you’d like to see all our posts about his work, click here and scroll down the page. If you don’t already know him, Nick comes from Devon and specialises in new builds in clinker and carvel for  sail, motor and rowing power from 8ft to 28ft with a special emphasis on West Country style and design, and also takes on repairs and refits from 25ft to 50ft. He can be contacted by email at nick_smith_boatbuilder@yahoo.com and by phone on 07786 693370.

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