Back to work

All summer, the Dockyard has been fairly well neglected - not much serious work going on as our boat programs came to a screeching halt - due largely to señor management (he's Uraguayan)devoting most energy to Hornet.  It didn't help that Monomoys 2 and 3 were outside, and the mosquitoes were quite bad this year.  Or that seam reefing is possibly worse than breaking rocks when it comes to hard labor.  But now the Monomoys have been shifted, and No. 3 is all set up so nicely - indoors I might add - and ready for volunteers in armchairs around the Hampton Roads area to start coming back out.

So I'm calling you all back in!  Over the last several weeks we've been horrible about keeping up the Wednesday night working sessions, but I'm trying to get that started again tonight.  1900 (7 pm)- Dockyard - get it.  We'll be getting started on planing down the framing stock, pulling out a few of the floors to be replaced, and getting out clamping devices ready for the actual work.

There is one thing missing in all of this - a budget.  The funds available for Dockyard work are scarce, and in 2011 were largely allocated for large materials.  That means we haven't purchased much in the way of tools and consumables that we'll need for moving forward.

I'm in the process of setting up an online wish list so volunteers and donors can go online and buy materials for the shop.  Of course, all of this is tax-deductible and I'll go one further to say that we'll send photos of the Dockyard crew using what individuals donate directly to the donors.  But I'm getting ahead of myself - we're still testing to see how it works so we can setup the process of crediting donors first.  Standby for more on this, shortly.

But back on topic - come on out tonight!  Things should go much more smoothly, even in the rain, in our nice, dry, well-lit shop.

BT

This Saturday, for those that are around and want to come out, we'll rip a few sample lengths and start doing some trial bends in the steam box, which has to this point seen very little service.  If all goes well, we'll actually start bending new material in.  And slowly but surely, as the regular Wednesday sessions continue and build in popularity, we'll start seeing some real progress on this historic gem of a boat.

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