September is slowly but surely slipping by and we’re moving towards the last month of the Gislinge Boat project. As always, life at the boatyard is busy. Today, Martin and Ture donned their waders and crawled into the water under the museum quay to check what timber was lying there in storage. Oak can be kept there in the water for up to two years and pretty quickly, the slipway was covered in lumps and lengths of wet, muddy oak.
They sorted through the pile, discarded the wood that was too old and divided the rest into timber that can be used on the Gislinge boat and timber that can reused at a later date. In terms of the Gislinge boat, it was mostly crooked timbers they were after, specifically, enough pieces to make the oar locks for the boat.
Work on the boat itself is progressing apace. On Monday, the last plank was steamed and fitted to the hull. It now just needs to be riveted in place and then the outer shell of the hull will be complete. There’s been a bit of discussion about how this milestone should be marked – American boatbuilders have the Whiskey Plank tradition but no decision has been made so far. Anyone got any other traditions you use to mark the end of planking up?
There’s still plenty of work to do inside the hull, however. The last floor timbers are being shaped as we speak and Birger is busy working on the rudder bulkhead.
Carsten is also still working at full steam on the rigging and the last of the lime bast rope was finished on Tuesday. He’s also working on a new system for attaching the lime bast ropes: a wooden toggle is used to secure the rope, which don’t have to tie as many knots. Bast rope breaks down quite quickly if it is constantly being twisted and tied into knots and he’s a little excited about how the new system is going to work.
So all in all, we’re busy!
Don’t forget to let us know how your own Gislinge Boat projects are going – you can always drop us a line here at the blog and keep us posted.
