The logbook
Notes from the bench
Occasional writing about building, rigging and the things that go wrong.
Technique
Rigging is not the hard part
Everyone dreads the rigging and everyone is wrong. The hard part is the second planking layer, and it is hard for one reason: people rush the soaking.
Materials
Why we do not sell lacquered brass
A lacquered compass looks perfect in the box and stays that way forever, which is the problem. Unlacquered brass takes a patina in about a season.
Our story
Frame nineteen
The kit that started all of this was missing nineteen frames, and the supplier had stopped answering. We cut replacements by hand from pear stock over two winters.
Beginners
A first kit that will not put you off
Pre-shaped hull, numbered parts, rigging you can finish in a weekend. The Mayflower is not the most impressive thing we sell. It is the right start.
Technique
Reading a plan sheet
Plan sheets are drawn to a convention that nobody explains. Here is the whole convention in about four hundred words.
Workshop
Packing for the post
Masts and glass travel separately from the hull, in their own sleeve. It costs us more per parcel and saves a great deal of correspondence.