Flipped
I love having skylights in my attic room. I can stand with them open like a meerkat poking out of his burrow and get a fine view of the snowy street.
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Something about the snowy / sleety day and a few people being absent that just sucked the energy right out of the room today. People were standing around in a fog or just hanging out and talking. Kev read the paper. I did what I always do… worked along, looking for that happy little groove when it’s just me and the work. We did manage to flip the boat but my camera battery crapped out just as we were about to start. Dopey got some nice pics though, and I’ll post them soon. In the meantime, here she is, all sleek and sassy.
We’ve removed the molds and installed cross-spalls to help keep the hull shape. The sheer ribband (thick pine band running along the sheer) is still attached to help hold the shape as well. Once we install the sheer clamps and deck beams, she’ll hold her shape on her own.
You can see the 2 planks that I neglected to back prime on the starboard side there. Of course you can, everyone in the shop certainly did. And naturally they all had helpful and informative comments about them, “Hey, looks like you missed a couple of planks there.” “Looks like someone forgot to back prime!” “Nice paint job.”
Yes, I love boat school.
March 18th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Congratulations on flipping the boat. I bet it is an exciting milestone for you. It looks like you are working to a satisfyingly high level of craftmanship. How are those people who started with no woodworking experience coping?
I discovered your blog yesterday and have since read every word of it. It’s certainly gripping stuff for a ‘boat nut’. I will be eagerly awaiting each update from now on.
I really admire and envy what you are doing. Did it take a lot of thought and procrastination to make the decision to drop everything and go to the IYRS, or did you just know that it was what you were going to do? The reason that I ask is that I am trying to come to the same decision myself. I live in Amsterdam and I am considering going back to the UK to do a year long course at one of the schools there.
What do you hope to do when you have finished the course, or is it too early to say? Anyway, enough questions from me. Good luck with finishing the course.
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James
March 18th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Thanks for stopping by James!
And, at the risk of sounding like a politician, I’d say the answer to many of your questions is, “it depends.” Let’s take the new to woodworking students. I’d say they’re all coping in different ways. For some folks, the challenge is exciting, for some is just frustrating. I think it has a lot to do with how easy or hard you are on yourself. If making a mistake leads you to saying something along the lines of “What on earth is wrong with me, it’s ridiculous that I’ve made this mistake, I’m revealed as an idiot to everyone” then you’re going to be highly motivated to avoid trying anything that you could screw up, or, having screwed up, you’ll be motivated to hide it. If you can tell yourself “I’m really pissed off that I made this mistake, but it’s also pretty much par for the course, so let’s figure out what to do to fix it.” then you’re going to be angrier for less time and learn faster.
It did take a lot of thought to jump into this. I was inspired by musicians I’ve met who have done similar things with their careers as well as by other people who’ve taken big leaps of faith. It’s funny, once you start on this kind of path, you start noticing that folks all over the place are doing something very similar. You start noticing that this message is being presented in movies (old ones like “Running” and newer ones like “Stranger Than Fiction”), in interviews… just all over the place. Joseph Campbell’s interviews with Bill Moyers were inspiring. Anyway, all those reminders help me to realize that following what you love is important, and that you’re in the company of people who’ve started this sort of journey from the beginning of time. Nice to have company. The bottom line, though, is that no amount of thinking is ever enough to protect you really. It’s certainly in the realm of possibilities that the end result of all this is a huge debt load, a job that pays 27k / year, a gradually developing sensitivity to various woods, glues, and chemicals, and some ridiculous injury. The alternative is never knowing. For me, that alternative is the worse choice. For someone else, it’s the better one. So, how do you want to look at this time of your life when you’re 60?
When I’m done, I plan on working in the biz for at least the next 5 years, hopefully in a small shop that prides itself on the quality of work they do. There’s so much to this craft that can only be taught by taking the time to do it. I’m pretty old to start in this game, and it’s quite possible that it’s too late for me to open my own shop and make it viable. Hard to say… life presents odd little opportunities that you can’t predict. I may teach sometime down the line, perhaps buy a boat and travel around stopping in places for 6 months at a time to build and repair boats to make ends meet. It’d be nice to win the lottery to finance all this, but I’m not holding my breath.
-Tom