As it turns out, boats are traditionally built in winter. Seeing how busy things have being this summer I understand why! Last week I visited Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and one of the worlds windiest cities with an average wind speed of 22kph. Wellington is crammed in between steep mountains and sits on an active fault line. Twisting narrow roads, overpasses and tunnels turn, overlap and zig zag across the city.
 |
| A rare piece of flat ground |
Every house is built on incredibly steep ground. Many have some sort of electric cable car system to carry their occupants from the car-port to their home.
 |
| A typical Wellington car park | | |
In between visiting Wellington, making pickles and plum wine, some progress on the boat has happened. Three out of four side pieces (remember this is a twin-box boat) now have their pine chines bent and glued onto the plywood. One more to go!
And, failing that, it will be winter soon and progress will be sure to speed up!
Hi, Damo!
ReplyDeleteYour description of Wellington over at Fernglade made me hope that you had posted some photos of it here. You did not disappoint! What an enticing place.
Your boat appears to be coming along beautifully. Do you ever read Dmitry Orlov?
Boat building and designing are a big part of his life, as well as all of his collapse writing. He is behind a paywall now, though.
Pam
Hi Pam,
DeleteI have read some of Orlov - and took a look at his sailing houseboat design which looked pretty cool, if perhaps not much in the speed department! :-)
Damo
Hi Damo,
ReplyDeleteWow, that is steep as, but Wellington looks cool as. It is fascinating to see that the cars are parked on a timber platform! When we visited there, the weather was very grey, cloudy, and rainy.
Hey, out of curiosity, why do the timbers at the top of the boat have dried glue?
Chris
Hi Chris,
DeleteDue to my super-precise method of construction, I lay the pieces on the ground for gluing, and a lot oozes out whilst it is drying. Later, when all 4 pieces are ready I will clamp them together and sand everything back to be the same.
If you went to Wellington today the weather would be closer to what you remember - all of NZ is now covered in rain from the ex-tropical cyclone. The west coast has gotten severe weather warnings and there was talk of declaring a state of emergency.
Damo
Stay safe and it is probably an unwise thing to drive through floodwaters. ;-)! When the local river cut us off in 2010 during a massive flood, I couldn't even see where the road was let alone take my best guess. It was a long trip to get home that night.
ReplyDelete