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Friday 12 June 2009
Monday 4 February 2008
Sunday 27 January 2008
Saturday 22 December 2007
Saturday 3 November 2007
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Making a mold of a Clinker Dinghy
This all started with a search on eBay for a car wing mirror...!
It has since consumed nearly every spare hour I have had in the past 12 months....
''Dont try this at home''.........unless you have a spare... thousand hours''
All I wanted was a wing mirror as I searched on eBay...when I found what I wanted I made the mistake of looking at...Sellers other items...
Amongst the other auctions this seller had, was a mold for a Clinker Dinghy....
It caught my eye as there was such a large number of bids for what, at the time, seemed a small uninteresting boat....
Anyhow I marked this down on my favourites, and over the next few days watched the auction progress...
Hundreds of people watched it, and there was frantic bidding activity...and at the end I was amazed at how much the mold sold for....
Consequently I then followed the progress of the winner of the mold, as he then produced a number of boats, which he also sold on the afore mentioned auction site...
These small boats were in high demand...and fetching a reasonable price...
My interest was now fuelled....why were these little boats creating so much interest...?
They were small and suitable for lake river and in-shore fishing, and easily handled on land by two people...and would more than likely go on the roof of a van or an estate car....can be powered by a small outboard motor, and would be desired by many...
Having made my own custom waveboards in the past....''How difficult can it be''... I thought.....''anyone could make one of those.... in their shed''...........
......Perhaps my shed...?
This all started with a search on eBay for a car wing mirror...!
It has since consumed nearly every spare hour I have had in the past 12 months....
''Dont try this at home''.........unless you have a spare... thousand hours''
All I wanted was a wing mirror as I searched on eBay...when I found what I wanted I made the mistake of looking at...Sellers other items...
Amongst the other auctions this seller had, was a mold for a Clinker Dinghy....
It caught my eye as there was such a large number of bids for what, at the time, seemed a small uninteresting boat....
Anyhow I marked this down on my favourites, and over the next few days watched the auction progress...
Hundreds of people watched it, and there was frantic bidding activity...and at the end I was amazed at how much the mold sold for....
Consequently I then followed the progress of the winner of the mold, as he then produced a number of boats, which he also sold on the afore mentioned auction site...
These small boats were in high demand...and fetching a reasonable price...
My interest was now fuelled....why were these little boats creating so much interest...?
They were small and suitable for lake river and in-shore fishing, and easily handled on land by two people...and would more than likely go on the roof of a van or an estate car....can be powered by a small outboard motor, and would be desired by many...
Having made my own custom waveboards in the past....''How difficult can it be''... I thought.....''anyone could make one of those.... in their shed''...........
......Perhaps my shed...?
Tuesday 30 October 2007
The Idea...
With this new found interest I told my son of my observations, and he said...
'' We could easily make a mold.....It would be dead easy....We can get a load of MDF, cut and shape all the planks...cut some formers...a bucket of filler ...a bit of rubbing down and polishing and before you know it we will have a mold''...
It certainly sounded feasible to me.......me who had never attempted anything like this before...
At the time I personally had limited experience of working with GRP....certainly not creating something from new...I had done many repairs to cars that were used by disabled people a few years prior to this.....and had also made many custom wave boards for windsurfing, using woven cloth and epoxy resin....Whereas my son was, at the time ... earning his living, making boats in GRP... he had all the skills...mold making, laminating, carpentry and finishing to a very high standard....
Perhaps between us we might be able to produce something......half reasonable ?
After really putting some thought into making a mold from scratch, we decided against it....the way forward was to get a donor boat preferably in good condition...and take a mold from that....
''That would be copying'' ... you say..........in actual fact we were going to alter various aspects of the original, and then it would be our own mold....and nobody could sue us........ in theory.
The search was launched...we started looking along the beach and the river banks...there were plenty Clinkers out there, but nearly all needed loads of work done to them before you could even start preparing it for the mold...
Eventually we went to view a boat near Chichester in Sussex...
It was perfect...9ft 6ins in length...and a true classic clinker dinghy ...lots of hardwood and copper rivets ... and in excellent condition...
The owner was very knowledgeable about wooden boats...and assured us that'' It had no rot'' and pointed out the only two small scarf repairs which had been professionaly done...
He also said..''That he thought that due to the clinker having lifting eyes fore and aft..that it would have been suspended on a much larger craft earlier in it's life...and have been a tender to such a vessel''...
A deal was struck and we were the new owners of this splendid little vessel...
We trailered it home and took some photos...
........Click on any photo for a high quality large image......
...
'' We could easily make a mold.....It would be dead easy....We can get a load of MDF, cut and shape all the planks...cut some formers...a bucket of filler ...a bit of rubbing down and polishing and before you know it we will have a mold''...
It certainly sounded feasible to me.......me who had never attempted anything like this before...
At the time I personally had limited experience of working with GRP....certainly not creating something from new...I had done many repairs to cars that were used by disabled people a few years prior to this.....and had also made many custom wave boards for windsurfing, using woven cloth and epoxy resin....Whereas my son was, at the time ... earning his living, making boats in GRP... he had all the skills...mold making, laminating, carpentry and finishing to a very high standard....
Perhaps between us we might be able to produce something......half reasonable ?
After really putting some thought into making a mold from scratch, we decided against it....the way forward was to get a donor boat preferably in good condition...and take a mold from that....
''That would be copying'' ... you say..........in actual fact we were going to alter various aspects of the original, and then it would be our own mold....and nobody could sue us........ in theory.
The search was launched...we started looking along the beach and the river banks...there were plenty Clinkers out there, but nearly all needed loads of work done to them before you could even start preparing it for the mold...
Eventually we went to view a boat near Chichester in Sussex...
It was perfect...9ft 6ins in length...and a true classic clinker dinghy ...lots of hardwood and copper rivets ... and in excellent condition...
The owner was very knowledgeable about wooden boats...and assured us that'' It had no rot'' and pointed out the only two small scarf repairs which had been professionaly done...
He also said..''That he thought that due to the clinker having lifting eyes fore and aft..that it would have been suspended on a much larger craft earlier in it's life...and have been a tender to such a vessel''...
A deal was struck and we were the new owners of this splendid little vessel...
We trailered it home and took some photos...
........Click on any photo for a high quality large image......
...
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