Back in the saddle

The British in general, and the English in particular, have an obsession with the weather. It's probably because we don't generally know what we're going to get; during our 'summer' you really do need to carry a pair of sunglasses and an umbrella. However, at the moment we do have some consistency - rain. Apparently the long range forecast reckons that this is with us until the middle of July. Am I down-hearted? No! I've finally got to a stage where I'm not chucking up great clouds of dust and I'm back in my wife's garage.

Putting the jig-saw and router away for a while has been a great feeling. I find that both tools are noisy, dusty and dangerous (at least they are in my hands). A bench-joiner acquaintance of mine has told me enough tales of lost digits and 'thrown' router bits buzzing around the workshop at 30,000 rpm to leave me with a kind of deep-felt respect for this equipment that borders on terror. Fortunately I now have quite a comprehensive kit of parts ready and I'm able to start working in earnest on actually building the boat. That said, the first task is to varnish the floor, keel and side panels. With each part requiring a minimum of three coats of varnish and needing sixteen hours between coats I'm not in any immediate danger of actually joining any of the parts together, but the feeling of making progress after a period of enforced stagnation is terrific.

There's something about building a boat, even a modest little dinghy. I can't quite put my finger on it but the general feeling for me is better than any other woodwork project I've ever undertaken.

For the time being at least, I recommend it.