Ship’s wheel
Dave ‘goes about’ as he turns the ship’s wheel. The spinning platform is connected by ropes and pulleys to the wheel. It really is quite fun! Helps teach navigation. Or maybe just fun
J.H.
JH just having a few tweaks before her first dunking in a looooong time. It will leak significantly initially before she ‘takes up’ (the wood swells). Just so you know, when you see her laid low. It’s normal, that’s what happens, it’s just how these things roll. And when she seals nicely, sitting high in the water, then it’s in with the engine, up with the mast, work out the rigging, sail into the sunset. See ya.
Beginnings of a rope making machine
The making of a rope making machine is underway for the magnificent theatre company ‘The Grand Theatre of Lemmings’. An interactive show: children will be able to turn twine into rope by turning the handle of this machine – a clever time-honoured design. Shown here are the pulleys which will be driven by a leather drive-belt. Interestingly the pulleys need a convex edge to stop the belt drifting off. Counter-intuitive?
Sand property
So here, at low tide, we have a buoy attached to an anchor used for a racing marker. The sand has swallowed the anchor. The sand is not giving the anchor back. The sand now owns the anchor.
Lunch
Ahhhh, smells good! Soup. Ingredients: bitumen, linseed oil, seasoned to taste. Gas bottle saucepan – chef’s favourite. For Jack Heron, fills up the little pockets where only muck and bullets live.
Jack Heron progress
Here’s me inside Jack Heron. Check out that reassembled centreboard casing! And in the mastic gun…errr, so what do we think about ‘Screwfix Roof and gutter sealant’ for bedding down fittings? While not entirely authentic (!) it seems to me to be cheap, and rather sensible, bitumen based gear.
FIRE!
Fire! And G&T’s
Telly fame!
On the telly! ‘Hi, I’m Troy Mclure. You may remember me from such films as ‘Lead paint: delicious but deadly!’
JH, a goal to which one must work
Here’s a picture of Jack Heron taken about fifteen years ago. Now you know why all the effort
Breakfast club
Brekker
Orange
The spring collection at the yard. Orange is ‘in’
Inventions
Late night inspirations. ‘When was the last time you saw an appliance with TWO plugs?!’ Our pressure washer did. And it only needed four people to operate.
Cabin fever
Tommo gets the dreaded ‘washer-eye, ‘eels-up-inside-you’ as he stands too long besides the base of our cabin for ‘The Cabins in the Wild’. As seen on TV.
Lush ship
‘Lush’, (cosmetics…) have an annual do. They wanted the interior of an old trading ship. I made it! Here is the curved structure assembled in the workshop before the London hit. They look like big beams but they have lightweight box-sections for ease of transport. Very clever.
‘Catrin’, gorn but not
‘Catrin’ looking after El Chico, Tommo and me, off Barmouth I think. Carefully given in exchange for ‘Jack Heron’ to a very worthy owner
Cookbook stand
Cookbook stand! Funky boatyard style! Anybody want one? Get in touch… (Sales technique: D-, must do better)
Jamon
Tommo discovers my secret jamon box
Another world
Walking into another world!
Alignment
The top, carefully aligned. ‘Set the controls for the heart of the sun’
