Author: patrickxavier

At Level 3, things really start to come together.

Castings are back from foundry for machining. (Patterns here; drawings here.)

And the interior! Matt Price’s exacting cabinetmaking is absolutely on song.

At Level 3, the hull gets painted, and the cove line’s terminating koru is reinstated.

Meanwhile, lockdown’s malaise contributed another photo (thanks Pamela Cundy and the Whangateau Traditional Boating Club) of what appears to be a bleak oil-skinned sailing day from the past in Wellington …

… and a story from the past:

YACHTSMAN’S PERIL. NEARLY ON THE ROCKS. COOK’S STRAIT ADVENTURE. DISABLED NEAR LYALL BAY. WELLINGTON, Tuesday. Captain Cooper, an experienced seaman, who arrived in the Dominion a fortnight or so ago from India and who intended sailing the Muritai, a well-known 32ft. yacht, which he purchased at Picton, had a narrow escape from going on the rocks at Lyall Bay yesterday. With a broken spar, his running gear fouled, and the engine out of working order, he lay from 7 a.m. till 1 p.m. off Houghton Bay with one anchor gone and the cable of the remaining anchor stranding. Capt. Cooper, after purchasing the Muritai at Picton, determined to sail her across the Straits single-handed, being unable to get anyone to go with him. He left on Saturday and got on well enough until he struck the fierce northerly gale. He came abreast the Pencarrow light at midnight on Sunday and being unable to make the harbour owing to the gale, and not knowing the coast, he put in towards Lyall Bay, pulling up off Houghton Bay with the rocks not far off on his lee. In the disabled state of the yacht Captain Cooper’s position was an unenviable one, as very soon one of his anchors carried away. From 7 a.m. he tried to establish communications with the shore by flying distress signals. At 11 a.m. the Lyall Bay Surf Club’s whaleboat put off with a crew and managed to get aboard the Muritai, whose owner was much concerned, as the cable of the remaining anchor was stranding badly. Being unable to attempt the towage of so large a craft, the whaleboat had to return. It got ashore, after several exciting attempts, on a big breaker. Word was sent to Island Bay, and a launch soon afterwards took the Muritai out of trouble.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18538, 24 October 1923, Page 8

Still one man working in a shed in the bottom of his garden:

Still only what one man can do in a shed at the bottom of his garden.

Furniture uroxsysation completed. Final undercoat done.

Deck ready for non-skid.
Interior filled and sanded.
Spars uroxsysation complete.

Castings to polisher.

Still only what one man can do in a shed at the bottom of his garden.