It has been a while since I last updated this blog. Although I had a lot of other obligations during this period, I didn't neglect the boat at all! As the weather for the last couple of months in Crete was too cold for gluing, glassing, filleting etc, I decided to chanel other time consuming parts of the project such as the masts and the crossbeams. Their construction is straight forward but they consist of numerous components-ply webs, lots of softwood and hardwood parts-that take long to be cut and glued together, a fact that pointed out the significance of a workshop as close to my appartment as possible.
As mentioned in previous posts, I was in search of such a workshop, so as to be able to spent every free hour on the project. A few days ago, a friend and proffesional carpenter agreed to let me construct a bench in one side of his workshop to glue up the masts and crossbeams. Furthermore, his stuff was willing to help me cut and shape all the wood parts of the assembly.
The firt thing I had to do was find the appropriate wood needed. This was not easy as Douglas fir or Oregon pine (as is more familiar in Greece), the kind of wood specified for the job, is not very popular among house and furniture constructors lately. As a result wood suppliers in Crete don't import it any more. As if this was not enough, the ammount I needed was about 1,5 m3 and it should be first class. I had to buy from three different suppliers to find the quantity required and discard some when cutting and planing as unsuitable ( from lower quality). Total cost: 1800€ plus some 500€ for more epoxy and materials for the bench...a lot of money for pine...
The good news is that with the Douglas fir for the masts and crossbeams I have almost bought all the material needed to complete the boat except for some more epoxy and glass cloth. In a later post more economical aspects will be mentioned as I think every future builder of such a boat would be interested in having a realistic estimation of the cost.
In the photos below the first steps in organizing the construction of the two masts and four crossbeams are shown. Notice the 6m long cleargrained Douglas fir pieces I managed to find in a wood suppliers warehouse (unsought for two years..) and the beautiful Wharram mast bases that I cut from a piece of oak I found in my friends workshop. Mast crane is from Iroko.
6m long Douglas fir pieces. Not easy to handle but will save me a lot of scarf joining!
Cutting the wood
Only half the ammount required!
The two part gluing bench. A third part will be added for gluing the masts
Parts of the mast crane and the two oak bases
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