This weekend was the fathers day weekend and south of the border the Junteenth. Although not planned this way it was a good weekend to get the boat out of the shed.
After more than 800 hours of building on evenings and weekends in 2-4 hour blocks. I’d been waiting since October for the COVID restrictions to be relaxed to the point where I could invite 7 or 8 friends to help me lift the boat up and onto the trailer. An extra challenge was that in the intervening 5 years a fig tree had grown to block the way a little.
Un-sheding the Caledonia Yawl
Big thanks to all my friends and family who have helped me to get to this point. It is not without their support that I have the privilege of being able to take on a project like this.
This fall has been overwhelmed with other projects, namely completing my bike shed and going to the THNK school of creative leadership. Both eminently worthwhile pursuits, but they have displaced what little time I’ve set aside to move forward on this boat building project. It’s winter again and although Vancouver is not particularly cold the temperature has been hovering around three degrees Celsius in the morning and not much warmer in the afternoon which makes epoxy work more difficult.
Thankfully I have my makeshift oven.
Laminating my last knee Where I can keep the latest knee I laminated warm enough to cure.
This weekend I only found time Sunday afternoon to work on the shed. Fortunately I was able to work on my own and progress well putting up the rest of the galvanized roofing.
Today was a nice warm front ahead of an ominous rain system barrelling down on Vancouver. I felt the pressure of getting the roof up today. Working alone I managed to finish the walls and clear out the extra wood and off cuts that were against the fence.
All the trusses were ready and the trick was to put it all up on my own.
With a few braces I managed fairly well, but I was quite happy to see Patrice arrive at four and in the last hour we got all the trusses and. Strapping down. Just as it started to rain I got three of the corrugated roof sheets up. So I’m one quarter of the way towards having a dry boat shed.
Now the only thing I’m missing is a couple gutters to keep the people passing by dry.
With my front yard only 25″ wide and my neighbour’s house surrounded in scaffolding; I was not able to set up shop in front of the house. Fortunately my friend Patrice ha been bitten by the same bug as me and has offered up the slab in his back yard to build a shed.
We live 5 blocks apart so it is close, but also far enough that when I’m working on the boat I won’t have the usual family distractions and I’ll be able hopefully to do several solid hours of work at a time.
Today it was a late start at three pm but I had bought all the lumber two weeks ago so progress was quick. In two hours I got all the trusses done as well as two of the four ten foot walls.
Originally i though about using a metal framed tarp shelter which would have been much faster but may not have fit well due to a few issues with the site and the tarp sheds are less flexible than building your own.
Projects, images, and ideas for my little piece of the internet
