I need something to write about. I miss doing it, but there’s not really much of interest happening at the moment. Sure, there’s a bit of work progressing on the boat, but I’m fairly certain that a blog about cutting wood would soon grow tiring, if indeed it could be anything else in the first place.

I must tell you about one wood work related thought though. It made me feel a bit ‘Joshua Slocum’, carving my dream from a few decades of natures finest accident; a tree.

My woodwork teacher in school wouldn’t remember me, because I was quite unremarkable at the craft. It has always escaped me, and rather like people pay me to develop websites for them, woodwork was just something I had to consult the employment of a third party for. Until recently anyway, faced with a total lack of money I’ve been forced into doing the job myself.

A kind fellow by the name of Neil knocked my chippy sense in to gear a few weeks ago when he showed me how to make a template to cut the bulkheads from. Until that point, I had only ever cut straight lines, but after a demonstration he left me to my own devices. “If you get stuck, I’ll show you, but I won’t do it for you or you won’t learn”. Oh, not the hard way, I thought.

Still, here I am now with all sorts of plywood shapes cut out and bonded to the hull. I am getting quite good at it, even if I say so myself. See, unlike the person who built this boat, I will not accept poor quality work, and so even if it takes me a few attempts, a plethora of questions around the boatyard, and a few hours of reading, I don’t care. I want it done properly, or there’s no point doing it at all.

Still, I took a step closer to understanding the mysterious art of wood working today. As I have mentioned, Vreli was poorly built, but what I have done so far has all been with marine ply, or at least it was until I removed a piece of hardwood trim on the companionway bulkhead. Behind it, and to which it was mounted, was some rough cut softwood, like the stuff you find on the frames in the loft of your house. It was untreated, and poorly attached to boot. The decision was instant, it’s coming out and being replaced by something more suitable.

A couple of days ago I jumped in the car, and drove to the local timber yard on a quest for Mahogany. I got taken to dark a store room where I picked out two planks of rough cut Sapele. Sapele is similar to Mahogany, indeed I believe it’s from the same family of trees, but it’s much more readily available. This wasn’t just going to the local DIY shop and picking up a couple of planks, this was raw strips of tree. I wasn’t exactly sure how on earth I was going to turn it into the shape of wood I needed, but where there’s a will (and an expert to consult) there’s a way, so back to the boatyard I ventured to proudly show the people building their own boats that I’d bought some real wood.

Anyway, today, Peter the wood expert kindly offered to show me how to prepare this tree for being useful, and so we fed the 11ft planks through his planing machine a couple of times until it was smooth. I now own two bits of lovely looking wood, and will be cutting them out on Wednesday, ready for fitting. The beauty of it is, I can slice up the spare wood in order to make bits of trimming. I can see the appeal in it all now. Taking a raw material and fashioning it into something useful is a wonderful feeling.

Just a little bit of knowledge to get you going opens up a whole world of possibilities. I don’t think I’d be quite so scared about the idea of owning a wooden boat now.

Anyway, no more wood stories, I promise. I am, however, still left with that minor problem of having nothing to write about. I really these adventures didn’t involve so much hard work to make happen.

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