Phantom IRC Measuring and Weigh In

Rob organised to have Phantom measured and weighed for IRC this week. This involved stripping the boat completely for in water measurements and then weighing. She came in at 4.6tonnes (including slings) so officially will be a little less. With the weight out, she sits about an inch higher in the water, so we are keen to see how much this will improve performance. 

Update 4th Nov 2012: 
Saturdays race went well. The course; Triangle, Windward Return. 
The wind; initially light from the ENE, turned to a 15 knot sea breeze at 3:15pm. 
We finished 2nd across the line and 11th on handicap. our current handicap is 0.920. For the race our back calculated handicap was very respectable 0.892, which means we were 2.8% of the pace.  
2.8% improvement shouldn't be too hard to find.

 Results here: http://www.rgyc.com.au/results/alpha1213/saturday/05RGrp1.htm

Gaye is Painting Again ...

rather Jackson Pollard'esque

... and we get two beautiful little visitors for the day...

Couta Boat gets a Deck

Cap't'n Ratty would be proud of me, I have progressed the couta boat build a little further. The boat now has a partial deck. I am thinking of leaving a little bit off the deck permanently, so as to be able to see the construction details underneath.

Couta Boat

Couta Boat

Couta Boat - Deck planks installed w/o gunwhales

Safety & Survival at Sea Course 2012 by ORCV

I recently signed up and participated a Safety and Sea Survival Course (SSSC)  run by the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria and thoroughly enjoyed the two days of classroom instruction and in pool practical exercises.  http://www.orcv.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1847&Itemid=450
Below are a bunch of pics from the course. They are low res so anyone wanting high res just let me know.

Stanley 55 Combination Plane

I picked this little beauty up a couple of weeks back from Michael and only just now have had the time to take a pic and post it. It is a Stanley 55 Combination Plane. It is complete with the 4 boxes of cutters that originally came the the plane. Originally designed to replace wooden moulding planes, these planes now are rarely used these day as they have in turn been replaced by (screaming) electric routers and spindle moulders. However when time permits they are great to set up and cut mouldings, beads or trenches etc. with the only noise that of the shavings coming away from the timber. 

From Stanley Tools, by John Walter. Mfgd from 1897 to 1963. Type 1 from 1897 to 1905. 

Type 1 will have the 9/19/1893 and 1/22/1895 patents stamped on the skate.

That's great --- mine is a Type 1. --- Cool.

Here is a little further reading from a web research:

http://www.woodcraft.com/Articles/Articles.aspx?ArticleId=424

http://www.tooltrip.com/tooltrip9/stanley/comb-planes/stan-com.htm

http://www.cornishworkshop.co.uk/combinationplanes.html

http://www.handplane.com/136/stanley-no-55-universal-combination-plane/

Some info on Record Planes: http://www.recordhandplanes.com/index.html

http://www.jonzimmersantiquetools.com/features/combo.html

Tallarook to Mansfield Rail Trail

Last week Clive and I did a 3 day cycling trip to check out the recently opened Mansfield Rail Trail. We took the train to Seymour, then cycled to the head of the rail trail at Tallarook and took the 134 klm trail up to Mansfield, with a little side step to Alexandra. Finished to trip in Benella where we caught the train back to Melbourne, then (for me) home to Geelong.There is an active map here: http://www.railtrails.org.au/trail?view=trail&id=90
Day 1: Seymour to Alexandra 90 klm Surface Gravel. 90klm is a bit far for an unsealed track, we left Seymour at 9:00am and arrived at Alexandra at 5:00pm, averaging 12 klm per hour which in retrospect was pretty good for gravel.
Stayed at the Best Western and went to the Seymour Pub for a meal, which turned out to be the biggest serving of roast pork and crackling I have ever had. Yum.

Day 2: Alexandra to Mansfield 80 klm. Surface Gravel. This is magpie swooping season and we could rightly name this section 'magpie alley'. If we got swooped once, we got swooped 20 times.
Stayed at the Alexandra Motel, which I can't recommend - for the price you would expect 4 star quality. The local Alexandra pub had just won an Australia wide award for their Parmas (Parmigiana). I ordered one with prawns and wasn't disappointed. Yum - yum.

Day 3 Mansfield to Benella 65 klm Surface Sealed Road. First half with little shoulder, the rest had plenty of road shoulder.
Can't go away without having crumbed cutlets just once. So tonight was crumbed cutlets night. Yum - yum - yum.
Had some time to kill before catching the train, so checked out the local Antiques Shop. Found a very lovely Record 405 combination plane, in a box and almost complete. It is still bothering me that it remains in the shop.

Clive at Seymour with the Goulburn River in the background

The original Hume Highway Bridge crossing the Goulburn River near Seymour

Bridge over Goulburn River near Seymour

Rail Trail near Tarwool

We stop for Devonshire Tea 

Lunch is less salubrious than the D tea, but equally satisfying 

Cheviot Tunnel is 200m long built with bricks.If you close your eyes you can 'see' the trains coming up the grade.

Magpie Alley. This guy at Alexandra was particularly annoyed with us.

Alexandra Rail siding. Now a particularly interesting museum.

Creek which will eventually find its way into Lake Eildon

The Brankeet Arm of Lake Eildon. Now full of water.

Crossing Lake Eildon at Bonnie Doon.

Woden Push Pin

I am rather thrilled with my latest little purchase. Michael had invited me down to take a look at a new lot of tools he had recently purchased from a retiring cabinet maker. Amongst the Stanley planes, mortice chisels, Arkansas oil stones, Record cabinet scrapers, Diston saws - all users and beautifully kept - was this little mystery object.

    

I had never seen one before, so off to Google. It turns out to be a 'push pin'. It is used to set small brads saving your fingers from the hammer. I used it to make a little box. I can't understand how I (moreover my fingers) have survived all this time with out one. It is now my most favourite tool.