Arrived at Guildford

We have had a great day on the Swan River. In the main we have had light winds although we had a cracking sail around the Burswood peninsula. It’s amazing how the miles tick away as you just tap the boat along in light airs. For this sort of voyage three crew is perfect especially with all the camping and sailing gear. We must have set sail at least ten times and had to take the mast down three times so you need lots of room.

We have ended up camping in a goat farmers field with his, and the goats, permission. The field is opposite Woodridge which is on Stirling’s original land grant. Unfortunately it is under the Perth Airport flight path but so be it. Settling down to freeze dried meal of Thai chicken curry.

Tomorrow we push on to All Saints Church,

Underway

We left RFBYC at 0840 this morning and have rowed and sailed in light winds.
1120 abeam Old Swan Brewery,

Ripple to follow in Stirling’s wake

On Monday 16th March three RFBYC members – Gerry McGann, Mike Lefroy and John Longley will attempt to row and sail Ripple to All Saints Church in Henley Brook.

Captain James Stirling’s 1827 voyage in HMS Success’ longboat encouraged him to lobby the British government to establish the Swan River Colony.

Much has happened to the river since 1827 and we may not make it but we will give it a shot.

We will attempt to post a report each evening of our progress so watch this space.

A wonderful read with stunning photography – St Ayles in New Zealand

Follow the link below to read “Up the Creek with a lot of Paddles”

http://gu.com/p/4h3fp/sbl

Launch Day

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Great evening as Dotsie and Ripple hit the water for the first time. Congratulations to the building team led by Steve Ward.

Now to figure out how to get the best from these boats for Club Members.

The Skiffs are finished🙂

Our two St Ayles Skiffs that we started building at RFBYC on July 6th 2015 are finished.

Ripple and Dotsie have their names on the bow and their Club on their sides thanks to a kind donation from Michael Duffield of Artek Signs.

Tomorrow, the 28th January, they will be launched at 1745 at RFBYC.

Launch date set

The launch date for both boats has now been set as 1745 Thursday 28th January.

The launch will be at the eastern end of the RFBYC fueling dock.

Both boats will be swung into the Swan River simultaneously and will then be rowed to the dinghy lawn.

As is always the case when a launch is imminent we are full on getting ready.

The final paint coats are being applied, second set of oars finished, rudders hung and painted and so it goes on.

Rob Perrin working on one of the rudders

Steve Ward applying the final coat to Boat #1 while Charles Colvin leathers the second set of oars

Undercoats and thwarts

As the end of the year draws to an end we have both of our boats pretty much at the same stage and we are fitting them out side by side.

Both hulls are now under coated and the varnish is coming along on the gunnels.

We have started to fit the Huon Pine thwarts and the coxswain seats.

Next we will screw in the spreader supports from underneath the hulls and then start on sealing and painting the inside.

The colours are only undercoats and will end up nearer the RFBYC blue and white but we want to use a standard paint colour to make repairs easier.

We are working on a launch date for the end of January.

 

 

First varnish

A small but significant stage was reached this week when we put the first varnish on to Boat #1.

We also fitted the inwales and breasthooks to Boat #2.

Gunnels on

Another good week on Boat #1 in that the gunnels and breast hooks have been fitted. She is starting to look very smart.

There is a picture of the bow breast hook which I sourced from a Bangalay (eucalyptus botryoides) that I planted back in 1989.

The plan from here is to start painting Boat #1 while we get Boat #2 to the same point. After painting we will fit out the thwarts, kabes and footrests.

Major progress is being made on the oars with the first finished, from a shaping point of view, and the other 7 all at some stage of shaping.