....and we're back...

Well finally I'm back to building this currach again. Been working lots and getting things a bit more ship shape in The Barley Loft ,as the workshop is known.
So the basic overview of the steps to building the naomhog is as follows.. (or at least the way I plan to build it)

1) Build the gunwales

2) Make the tachtaí and join top and bottom gunwale

3) Make the seats and join them to the gunwale

4) Bend the ribs and fit them to the lower gunnel

5) Put the stringers on

6) Cover the currach in fabric and waterproof it

7) Make the oars and and oarlocks and go rowing!


So as before when started Currach One, one of the first things we do is steam and bend the gunwales. So we need a steambox, I decided to build this one from insulation mostly, have never really seen anyone build a steambox quite like this before so I guess we'll soon see if there's a reason for that!

 As you can see on the left I made corners out of 75mm rips of ply screwed together, The steam box is obviously going to be around about 2400mm or 8ft long.
Currach Two is going to be shorter than Currach One, going to go for a length of about 17ft/5200mm this time and it will be designed for two people to row I think.


<---- That's Poutine!!



I then ripped the insulation with a straight edge and my Hilti circular saw with the bigger blade. Hooked the Hilti up to the Mafell automatic vacuum I have and it worked a treat, normally cutting insulation like this is a an awful balls and results in dust everywhere, particularly down your ENT!

I then made the insulation rips and the corners into sides 

Here's a little video of the final result and the setup for the steam part of things.

So the posts are going to be a lot more regular now, don't really have too many nixers on at the moment and I am very eager to get going on this currach... it's been a long time coming, we'll see if my theory about it being easier to get wood in Ireland than Canada holds true or not. 

Should have another post and video by the end of the week with more detail on how the steambox is working out ... if that all works fine then it will be on to making the form for the bend at the prow of the boat.