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Gluing up the centerboard casing

The boatbuilder was back at work today on our John Welsford Navigator.

Over the last several years he’s been working on the boat off and on. We used to joke that it’s a boat in a bucket, since a lot of the parts were all standing up in a bucket. But now he’s starting to glue and screw the bits together, and soon we’ll have something that looks much more boat-like to admire from the kitchen window.

Today’s job was to glue up the centerboard casing. He’s done this once before and then discovered his measurements were wrong (he forgot to include the thickness of the keel plank). Fingers crossed it’s second time lucky!

On the writing front, I’ve created outline #45 (only a slight exaggeration!) to include some suggestions from my writing group. Now it’s just a matter of filling in the gaps (if only it were that easy!).



Cheeky squirrel

Squirrel

When you’re a backyard boatbuilder and you don’t have a garage or shed, you have to get creative. Which is why, if you look out our kitchen window, you’ll see a workbench, and the bits and pieces of plywood, which will one day become our John Welsford Navigator sailing dinghy – all set up on our deck.

But right now, you might also see this cheeky squirrel.

It’s nest building time, and Mr. or Mrs. Squirrel has decided that the newspaper under our can of epoxy will make the perfect nest lining.

When Patrick took this photo, the squirrel was sitting on the workbench, looking at us, paws tucked up, as if to say “Me? I’m a good squirrel, really! Aren’t I cute?” I know what you’re thinking – squirrels are just rats with good PR – but if you’d seen this cheeky squirrel shredding newspaper and then carefully folding it into his mouth, I think you’d have to agree – the PR is working!

Don’t believe me? Check out this video from BBC’s Wildlife on One:



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