Ikaroa Taking Stock of the Timber I’m taking stock of our timber before the next stage of work. The tidying is mostly just a byproduct—and it looks good.
Ikaroa Breakfast Between the Tiki 38 Hulls I had breakfast—technically lunch—with a view between the Tiki 38 hulls.
Ikaroa The Hull Sides Are Finally Fitted After a long and painful job, I’ve fitted and laminated all the hull sides and got the workshop tidy again. Next I’m making fillets and sending Adam to the workshop for his first weekend of laminating both hulls.
Ikaroa Four Stern Panels and More Sanding With Maciek’s help, I dry-fitted four stern panels and finally completed the hull sides on both lower hulls. Now I’m sanding, filling and preparing the panel ends for glass tape—because apparently boatbuilding is mainly sanding.
Ikaroa Making the Workshop Tent Silver After three weeks refreshing my graphic design skills, I’m back in the workshop upgrading our tent. It’s going silver, much warmer, and should cut our heating costs by at least half.
Ikaroa I’m Upgrading Our Workshop Tent After three weeks refreshing my graphic design skills, I’m back in the workshop upgrading our tent. It’s going silver, much warmer, and should cut our heating costs roughly in half.
Ikaroa My Bows Are Set in Epoxy I managed to finish another bit, and my bows are now set in something almost as permanent as stone. Time to move on to the last four bits at the sterns.
Ikaroa Lesson Number Zero With a Jigsaw I learned lesson number zero in using a jigsaw: check what’s underneath before cutting, especially when it’s a cement floor. The blade produced an interesting effect.
Ikaroa A Paint Scheme for Ikaroa I think we’ve found a paint scheme spot on for our boat. I’m just not sure whether visitors will take it the wrong way or get scared.
Tech Testing Starlink Before It Lands on Ikaroa I’m testing internet from Mars before it later lands on our boat.
Ikaroa Dry-Fitting Ikaroa’s Hull Side I spent another day dry-fitting, sanding, cleaning and drilling a plywood hull panel before it could finally be glued in place. And people wonder why boatbuilding takes so long.
Ikaroa Choosing the Hard Way to Build Ikaroa I’m listening to Herb McCormick’s book again and taking Larry Pardey’s wisdom to heart: building a boat is difficult, but I chose this way. So I’m trying not to moan and simply get on with the work.
Ikaroa The Remaining Hull Panels Finally Fit I moved into our winter shelter and worked through the remaining hull panels. After all the stress and mistakes, it feels great to see the major joins fitting snugly and precisely.
Ikaroa Another Hull Side Panel On I got epoxy in my hair, wood shavings everywhere, and the next hull side panel on. The playlist still needs work—Zaz finished before I did.
Ikaroa Fitting the Bow Parts to Ikaroa I finally got the bow parts fitted, with Zaz, ABBA and Cohen providing the soundtrack. A great start to the week.
Tech Starlink Arrives in the Workshop Something very interesting—and extremely important—arrived in our workshop earlier than expected: Starlink.
Ikaroa Fitting Plywood to the Superstructure I’m sealing the shape of Ikaroa’s lower hulls, and fitting these large plywood panels has been the most stressful part of the build so far. The last central panel is finally fixed, so I’m taking a week away before returning to finish the hull sides and laminate them.
Ikaroa Powered by Dreams and Caffeine We reckon coffee accounts for 0.5% of the whole boatbuilding budget. Hence the slogan: “Powered by dreams. And caffeine!”
Ikaroa Counting the Hours on Ikaroa I’m finding Hanneke Boon’s ballpark estimate of 2,000 hours to build a Tiki 38 surprisingly accurate. Add another 4,000-plus hours for cleaning the workshop afterwards.
Ikaroa Why I Turn Expensive Timber into Sawdust I sometimes wonder whether boatbuilding looks like a completely pointless exercise: putting time and money into expensive timber, only to turn it into wood shavings.
Tech A Bread Maker for Our Gluten-Free Galley We’re testing a bread maker for our gluten-free galley, with timed baking and modest power use making fresh bread possible at the boatyard. I just need to remember to switch it on.
Ikaroa There Is No End to Sanding I’m tidying the stringers, sanding the backbone side battens and filling all those little holes before the hull sides go on. Laminating may offer a brief respite, but more sanding is already waiting afterwards.
Ikaroa How Many Clamps Does Boatbuilding Need? I thought I knew how many clamps we needed for Ikaroa. I was wrong—and this was only a small selection.
Ikaroa Torturing Stringers To Relieve Stress We’ve already tortured two stringers, with six more waiting their turn. No stringers were seriously harmed in making these photos.
Ikaroa After Months of Work, the Hulls Sit Straight It feels so good when months of work confirm that I’ve done at least some things right—and the hulls aren’t listing to one side.
