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BUILDERSN

i'-V/Stfi, *;:'•?;•

Geoff Leggatt,

John McKillop

Chris Davis,

Mike Bcilby,

ABBA COMMITTEE

President, ph 9494 9999 (Wk)

Secretary, ph 9437 6666 (Wk)

Treasurer, ph 9222 5664 (Wk)

Newsletter, ph 9397 6209 (Hm)

Contact any of these four people for clarification of association activities.

A LIFETIME IN THE GAME

NOV/DEC '01

9367 3595 (Hm)

9313 7442 (Hm)

9387 5042 (Hm)

Kim Swarbrick was our guest speaker on thenight of the 25th Sept and what a lot he hadto impart! The subject: his life in boating.He actually started the story long before hisown birth year of 1951, beginning with hisgrandfather, having come from the EasternStates, in Albany in 1910. There he was alumper and coaler at the wharf as well as afisherman with a penchant for sailing, somuch so that he was one of the foundingfathers of the Princess Royal Sailing Club.He went to Nornalup in 1920 to fish the inletbut became involved with government bridgebuilding in the area and even operated alaunch supplying the bridge builders withmaterials for the projects along what is nowthe main South Coast road.

When the bridges were finished the familystayed on in the area, Kim's father and unclesoperating a guest house. The guest house ideafitted in well with boating and the family firsthad "Alice", an excursion boat, doing trips

around the estuary. Then in 1934 a well-known boat builder in Gerry Asquith arrivedand helped the family build the "LadyWalpole", their next excursion boat. Thisbecame father Tom's apprenticeship in boatbuilding, although he was obviously verycapable with his hands, anyway. The familythen built a small fleet of hire dinghies to gowith the guest house. These were initiallyvarnished and must have looked very smartthat way, but even in cloudy Walpole the suntook its toll and paint soon replaced thevarnish.

Kim came along in '51 and when most of theother kids would have still ridden a horse toschool, (or caught a bus) Kim rowed a boat.One of his earliest memories is of thecommencement of the Walpole Yacht Club,its initial fleet being retired heavyweightSharpies from Perth in 1957, that being aboutthe t ime that Viv Downing startedlightweights there. Through this period, '40's

to 460's, the family was also involved insawmil l ing in the area, and yet anotherexcursion boat, "Reliance", was built.

Then in 1962 was commenced another"Reliance", this time a copy of the yawlwhich won no less than three Bermuda races.She was 40' by I I * by only 4' draft, with acentreboard in the best North Americantradition. Kim commented that she was a realhandful when sailing downwind. The buildingstages were temporary frames withtemporary ribands over them, then steamedribs inserted before final planking, spruceabove the waterline, jarrah below. The spruceseams were splined but the jarrah ones weretraditionally caulked to allow for movementwhen wet.

In 1965, with "Reliance" still a year short ofcompletion, the family moved to Perth tocommence a full time boat building business,initially in Carrington St, Nedlands, thenmoving to Osborne Park. One of thebusiness's first projects was to rebuild theold "KirribiHi" into Roily Tasker's first"Siska" (another yawl). This was followedby two van der Stadt "Doggers", three"Carmens" and two launches before the moveinto fibreglass production took place.

The famous Sparkman and Stephens 34 wasbeing produced in England at the time and oneof Kim's uncles visited there, purchased oneof two moulds, shipped it home andproduction commenced. Not long after, about1970, Kim designed the Spacesailer 24 in hisbedroom, a plug and mould were producedand this design became a second string in thebusiness's bow. Then about another year onthey started building S&S 30's as well.Photographs Kim showed of the works at

this period typically showed six or eightboats at various stages of completion, thebusiness was very busy. It's worth notingthat Edward Heath's S&S34 won the Hobartrace in '69 and although they didn't see animmediate leap in orders, demand did increasegently from then on. Eventually about 100were built, with at least a third going east.One brief but highly significant event aboutthis time was the visit by the world famousdesigner, Olin Stephens, to Perth, no doubt toinspect the S&S34 production line. Heactually got down on the lofting floor withKim for several hours' highly valuabletutelage which Kim ranks as extremelyimportant in his development as a navalarchitect.

In addition to the Spacesailer 24, Kimdesigned 18', 20', 22' and 27' variants andthese were duly plugged, moulded andproduced as well. Also in the early '80s theS&S34 mould was made available for amateurhire so that others could save money bylaying up their own hulls. Finally the "S"series was developed; a boat which made noconcession to the 1OR rule and was set upprincipally for speed. The S80 was 8 metreslong and very popular, to be followed by theSi l l (which despite its racing pedigree, foundmuch favour amongst Queensland charterboat operators) and the S99. Since theclosure of the family business Kim hasdesigned two more - S97 and SI25. About 25S97s have been completed in Bunbury, butonly about two 125s so far. Kim was alsoable to show us, on the large TV screen,prints of most of his designs, including thelatest variants with bulb keels and so on. Allin all it was a very full talk making anextremely entertaining evening. Manythanks, Kim, it was most enjoyable.

RETURN TO A GLUED LAPSTRAKE PROJECT

On the 7th October we were back at CliveJarman's workshop to help him turn over thehull we'd seen in a much more embryonicform only four months previously. He'sbuilding an lain Oughtred "Eun Mara", 21* ofglued lapstrake (or glued clinker, call it whatyou will) sailing yawl. Back on the 9th ofJune it was a neat building jig with only twoand a half planks per side fitted over thestem, keel and stern post. Quite animpressive bit of work, even at that stage, butwith a long way to go.

But when we got there this time, what anadvance! The hull was completely plankedup and painted, albeit still upside-down.That was the point of our visit - to provideenough muscle to turn the shell over toupright. With bigger vessels this is oftendone with lifting slings designed to roll theshell over at the same time, but Clive didn'thave much clearance above the hull for slingsand had calculated the hull weight at under250kg, anyway. So raw muscle it was to be,with the building moulds and frames leftinside (some were to be permanent, anyway).When we turned over my 20' "Isis" a fewyears ago, I separated the shell from all themoulds and left them on the building jig, butthis meant the shell had to be lifted muchhigher to clear the jig and get it out of theworkshop.

For Olive's exercise the hull was basically tobe rolled to one side and then carried back andshored up on the base frame, not even leavingthe workshop at all. When we arrived theworkshop had already been emptied of"Maid of Pligh", bandsaw, lathe and saw-bench/planer, giving much more workingspace.The building moulds had already beenreleased from the floor frame and she was justsitting there, ready to roll over. A couple ofropes lay over the hull for the use of helpersto control the roll rate and save it from falling

against the adjacent work bench (andsquashing lifters, you never know, Clive maywant to call on them again, sometime).

And that's how it happened. The hu l l waslifted a few inches to allow the roil to bestarted within the confines of the bui ld ingframe, because the space beside was judged tobe a bit narrow, and with most of the weightbeing taken at the ends, the shell wasgradually turned onto mattresses Clive hadlayed down on the adjacent concrete floor; 1don't think the arresting ropes had muchwork to do at all. It would have been adifferent story had the 240kg of external leadballast been bolted into place beside thecentre case, of course, but at this stage theingots were still stacked up against a sidewall, and will be offered up to the keel later.

There was then a short pause while twonylon l i f t ing straps were fed under the shelland lifting bars inserted through end loops.Then with four bods per strap the hul l waseasily lifted sideways back over its floorframe, where it was lined up fairly central.Clive had a pair of external frames ready andthese were inserted under the hull , one end ata time, and clamped down to the floor frameto stop them rolling over. Being a clinkerhull, these only need to contact at the keeland two plank-lands, one each side, but thewhole weight comes onto only about sixsquare inches of carpeted contact, however. 1thought these frames looked a bit on the lightside but once they were clamped to the floorframe they became much more solid.

Then it was Linda's turn. A bottle ofchampagne would have been a bit premature(after all, the pundits judge this stage to beonly halfway to a completed boat) but sheclimbed aboard with the aid of a shortstepladder and proved that the structurewould carry her weight without a creak or a

WHERE BRAWN BEAT BRAINS

Before the move. There's a large area of deadwood atthe stern. Note also, one of the frames intended tokeep the hu l l upright, temporarily perched on (he bollom.

The first l i f t - to the outside of thebuilding jig. Note arrester rope, in ease hu l lIries lo roll too fast.

Now she starts to come over gently.A l i t t le more arid the weight is taken on themattress.

Now she's sitting on one bilge and we can all takea breather.

Ready for the lift back over the jig. All the temporaryframes can be clearly seen.

John McKillup takes the strain on one liftingstrap to lil't her back over the building jig.

Clive checks one oflhe frames holding the hullupright and level. Still to be clam|>cd down

groan. Modern epoxy is marvelous when itcomes to creating a solid, homogeneousvessel. It might as well be one piece of wood.A drawback, if you can call it that, is thatthere's no removing individual componentssuch as planks or ribs for replacement shouldrot set in, as they used to be able to do in theold days. However with modern chemicals

that's not a problem anyway. The wholeexercise was over in an hour, giving plenty oftime to sample Linda's lavishly layed outafternoon tea in the back garden afterwards.It was a pleasant afternoon helping a matewith one of the best hobbies in the world.Who's next?

NEXTGENERALMEETING

Now sit up and pay attention, down the backthere! 'Cos the next general meeting willNOT be held at MBYC. We will beaddressed by Tony Homiman of the 12 VoltShop, Welshpool, on the subject of lowvoltage electrics. And to maximise the rangeof products needed to illustrate the talk, itwill take place at the 12 Volt Shop itself-Unit 4, 12 Kewdale Rd, cnr of Orrong Rd.That's on Tuesday 27 Nov. We hope thechange of venue doesn't make life too difficultfor members but it should make for a muchbetter talk.

NEXT TOOLBOX VISIT

chine-built sea kayak but we've never had achance to learn the pros and cons of stripplanking - which is odd because it's a verypopular form of construction in other parts ofthe world, although I can imagine it results inglue up to the armpits if you're not careful.Nigel lives at 83 Dotterel Wy, Yangebup, sothat's the place to be on Saturday, 1st Dec,especially if you're into smaller, woodenboats.

CALENDAR

TUES, 27 NOV.Low voltage electrics, from Tony Horniman.The 12 Volt Shop,U4 /12 Kewdale Rd, (cnr Orrong Rd)Welshpool, 7.30 for 8pm.

SATURDAY, 1 DEC.Toolbox visit to Nigel Winter's workshop,to see strip planked sea kayak.83 Dotterel Wy, Yangebup, @ 2 pm.

There's a small change to this event, too.Normally the event would be held on thesecond Saturday of December, but our hostwould prefer it a bit earlier, so the visit willbe on Saturday, 1st December. The fellawho's hosting us is Nigel Winter and hisproject is a largish sea kayak in strip plank.Most of us are familiar with Clive Jarman's

MONDAY, 10 DEC.Committee meeting.

BOAT NAILS, FOR SALEChris Davis has in his current possession a large quantity of monel metal boat nails; thebarbed, annular ring type things. Trouble is, they're pretty big, 3" by lOg to be precise sothey're no good for small canoes and such. But boat nails in monel metal are like theproverbial hens' teeth these days and Chris feels that some one must have a use for them andis prepared to release them for a very reasonable price.

Ring him at home on 9387 5042 and you could score the bargain of the year.