SEI

SEI, pronounced either "SAY"  or "SHAEE" depending on where you are or what language you were born to, are a species of whale.  Small, fast swimmers, highly maneuverable and very capable.

Next.

Hardangerbot.  Should have the little " over the O but I cant get my computer to do that. Yet.

A small boat indigenous to the area around Hardanger in southern Norway. Typically three planks a side, sail and two pair oars, and very typical of the small boats of the Norwegian coast.

Plywood.  What we use today for building small boats that otherwise would have required very wide planks high grade planks in rot  resistant wood species, those planks are now measured in tens of dollars per handspan of length ( we dont use cubits any more, but please, some of you are metrically adept and some prefer the measurements based on various body parts of a long dead English king with some things such as the length of a piece of cloth that goes around the hips or the length of a longbows arrow, that latter being slightly more than the distance from the archers thumb to his chin with the bow drawn. Thats a yard by the way)

I do get off subject a bit don't I.

Anyway all those things come together in the next building project, SEI is a double ender, 4.55m long ( about 15 ft) by 1.5m wide ( about 5 ft) intended to remind people of the small boats of Hardangerfiord in Norway, and hopefully as fast and nimble as the SEI whale.

I've begun building, have all but two of the frames, plus both stems built and although I have to go and work ( dirty four letter word that is) tomorrow, I expect to be setting the frames up on the building frame by Monday.

Ah! The building frame. I'm into recycling.  Well, more into not spending money where I don't have to.  I needed some light uprights, bracing and some long pieces of wood.  Not of any great quality but they need to be straight and dry enough so they wont warp and move during the build.
Around here people in factories and warehouses put their non returnable pallets and freight flats out on the road verge for other people, the kind who have fireplaces or who are about to build a nice little plywood double ended sail and row boat, to pick up and take home to carefully disassemble into the various pieces needed.
Guess what I was doing late last night? I was hoping that the security guys and or police did not stop and ask me why I was driving around the industrial estate, looking down the driveways of the factories.
As it happened, between two boatbuilding companies I found exactly what I needed, loaded them into the truck and beetled off home in the dark.  I fondly imagine that the wood in those pallets has absorbed some of the ambiance of the boatbuilders each side, and so will be at home holding my new project together while I hang planking.


I'll have photos in a few days, thats a promise.
J