I suppose I've been in the mood for ranting lately, though I'm not sure why. I hate being the constant critic but it's hard not to say something about those glaring, nagging issues. So in all fairness - and for a spirit of proper balance - I should bring up a few GOOD things, and highlight somebody we appreciate. After all, it's the small partnerships and cooperatives that really make this hobby worthwhile.
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On that note, I spoke to John "Dutch" Collamore a few days ago. He's been one of the champions of the Luna project over at the Colonial Seaport Foundation. If you haven't heard of these people, I highly recommend checking out their site and blog. They are great folks, very welcoming and friendly, and we always have some sort of fun back-and-forth idea sharing and joint activities. According to John, the Foundation is having a fundraiser at the Half Moon Cruise Teminal (next to Nauticus) on Wednesday December 8 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. I know I'll be there! Good luck all!
I also want to point out that the Luna project, unlike Schooner Virginia, is being wholly supported by volunteers. Like NHS, they have NO PROFESSIONAL STAFF - so every dollar of your donations goes directly to support programming - not paying the administrators. Operations like this are self-sustaining because they are driven by the passion and outright selflessness of their participants and donors.
You guys motivate me - keep it up!
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BT
In other news, last night I spent a few hours getting the lines for the Monomoy keels laid out. The thought process here is to procuce two of each part, stems, stem knees, sternpost, sternpost knees and keels, all at once. After all, with as hard as we like to drive our boats, having solid backbones will be a serious concern, and we want to be sure that everything is as solid as possible. The keels are 20' 8" long each, and will be laminated into their curved 'banana' shapes using 3/4" lifts of clear white oak. This was found to be much cheaper than jumping through our asses (pardon my Anglo Saxon) to secure clear solid timbers. They should also be more stable.
The stems, sternposts and associated knees will be likewise laminated in the manner of sawn frames, using 1/4" plywood templates as cutting guides. Once cut to within about 1/4" of the template and smoothed, paper templates will be glued to both sides and the finish cuts made to those lines. The paper that remains (which won't be much) can be scraped off later once the parts are complete.
The lamination of all 10 pieces (5 per boat) will begin this weekend, and will likely occur simultaneously. I hope to have all of them ready for cutting by next weekend, as the next step toward our December 15 finish goal.
Anyone in the area who feels up for some work this afternoon, I'll likely be out picking up stock at Yukon Lumber and bringing it back to the stickers. Assume a departure of about 1600. More updates via Twitter later on.
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