Hardware Day

Our bundle of whaleboat hardware arrived from Mystic Seaport and we quickly went to work installing it on whaleboat number one.  The bundle included heavy bronze lifting rods for raising and lowering the boat from the ship, oarlocks, and pintle and gudgeon sets.  

Pintles, gudgeons, and oarlocks await installation.

A lifting rod atop a very well used whaleboat plan.

 Newt and volunteers began installing the hardware this week, and got most of the work done.  Volunteer Joe got three of the oarlocks installed, and a fourth was installed by Charles.  One more remains.  Newt drilled the holes through the keel, the ceiling, and the deck to install the aft lifting rod.  Working under the keel with minimal room to swing a hammer is making it challenging to "mushroom" the lower end of the rod so it will securely capture the heavy washer that holds the lifting rod to the boat.  

Aft lifting rod is in place.

The rudder, which was built last year and set aside has finally been installed. The gudgeons were riveted to the oak aft stem with copper rivets, and the pintles were similarly riveted to the rudder.  Next, the cheeks can be mortised to fit over the pintle straps, and the cheeks can be riveted to the rudder blade.  Some additional work must then be done to rig the rudder for un-shipping.  When not in use, the whaleboat crews quickly lifted the rudder from the gudgeons and fastened it to the side of the boat.  In its place, a 22 foot long steering oar was used.

The rudder is finally in place

A closer view of the pintle and gudgeon assembly.

Centerboard pin hole drilled and ready for board installation.

A freshly installed oarlock.  The boat has five of them.

Newt's harpoon holder completed and ready for -- whatever.

Meanwhile, next door to whaleboat number one, planking has begun on number two.  Bruce and Jeff cut out and fitted the garboard plank on the port side, and then used it as a template for the starboard mate.

Bruce and John pick out a board for the starboard garboard plank.

The Herreshoff Meadow Lark is getting a new forward hatch cover.  Bob is making it out of teak, to be consistent with the rest of the house structure.  He is carefully dovetailing the joints, which will also be pinned later on. Current plans call for it to have a clear lexan top.

Bob's Meadow Lark hatch cover takes shape.  Note the perfect dovetail joint. 

The new torsion box bench, which was a tabula rasa only a week ago, is now like everything else in our busy shop, covered with "stuff."  In the present case, the "stuff" is the beginnings of whaleboat oars.  John spent the day planing, sanding, and generally refining the shape of the first of the ash oars that WoW has been commissioned to make.  Oars for other boats will be made of spruce.  Although ash it traditional, it is very heavy, and ash oars up to 19 feet long would likely be too much for a crew of kids to handle.

John planes away on an oar.  Stock for others is seen in foreground.