Grommet Group:
We met as a big group today and we all listened to Patti. She told us about how its important to check and respond to the emails she sends us usually 1 day after the class and about doing our homework. Will reminded us of the safety we need to take in class, and getting our own tools out before class and putting them away after class. My group continued our rope work on worming,
serving and parceling. We do this to make the rope waterproof that way we don't have to replace a rotted rope in a few years.
For worming, we fill in all the open areas between the layers of the rope. After that we put double sided sticky black tape over the worming and rope. Then we take another strong middle sized rope and use that to wrap really tightly over the tape to make it even stronger then it is. I first thought that I was going to be miserable in this class and bored but once I got into it I was really excited I chose to do rope work over wood working because I wasn't confident with my measuring and cutting out. Rope work seemed like it would be easy but it's really not. It's fun and sometimes confusing learning how to make all the different knots and learning the names. I really like the class and would recommend it for people if they like to learn olden day boat
building. If you are interested in boats you should take this class it's really fun you can work on building the oars or on making the grommets.
Student Shipwright
Shelby Martel
Oar Group:
Today the wood working group was
laying out another set of oars. This involves a lot of measuring, marking, checking and of course erasing. We lay out two oars on each plank and then glue two planks to
gether. Once this is done they must be cut as close to the line as possible. It doesn’t have to be exact because we can always use a plane to shave them down right to the line.
This has been a great course so far. It has been a lot of fun and I have learned a lot about the Popham Colony. History in itself, is good to know but it becomes more interesting when it has happened in your area.
Student Shipwright
Wesley Mellor
Have a fabulous week off!!
Today in the Shallop Project, the wood workers were planing the mast. They had to take the edges off to make it round so its easier for the sails to rise up and down. In order to make it wider, they had to mark lines on it so they knew when to stop planing. Another thing that was being planed was an oar, to make it was nice and smooth. They had to mark it to get it right. Lastly, the wood workers are marking the sprit to make it 8-sided and then rounded. In the rope work group, they are finishing the worming, serving, and parceling. They are trying to finish and start all of the grommets left for them to do for the boat.
