Building ‘Sharpy’ Part 7

The Yard ready for varnishing

The Yard


Yesterday, in preparation for making the yard, I spent about an hour-and-a-half sawing a 15’ piece of well seasoned Douglas fir to make it into a square section. Today I shaped it with a hand plane into a round section and tapered both ends to measurements on the sail plan. Having rounded the ends of the timber I used a sanding board to give it a smooth finish. Finally, I smoothed the surface with medium-fine sandpaper and rounded the ends of the yard by using a hand plane, a file and fine sandpaper.


Apart from drilling holes at the head and foot of the yard and varnishing it, the yard is finished – total time to date is six-and-a-half hours. The holes at the top and bottom of the yard will be for short lengths of thin Terylene line that will be used to secure the head and the tack of the sail.


If building the rest of the boat will be as easy and speedy, I’ll have my ‘Sharpy’ on the water in time for the sailing season next year, but from experience I know there will be times when things will not be so good. Autumn is already with us, and winter is on the way. The first frost has been forecast for tonight, and cold weather will hamper the use of epoxy.


My next job will be laminating two pieces of Douglas fir to the sides of a thicker piece so that it will be thick enough for making the mast, and I shall need to join the timber with epoxy. The mast is short, so I shall be able to bring it indoors if the outside temperature is less than 15 degrees Celsius. I use a two pot epoxy from UK Epoxy Resins – two parts of resin to one part of catalyst dispensed by pumps. It takes three minutes to mix and there’s usually a twenty five minute gel time, which is ample for most jobs, even fixing a deck on a small boat such as ‘Sharpy’.


Link

UK Epoxy Resins

http://www.epoxy-resins.co.uk/