Today back to class and we managed to sort out the problem of the stem and hopefully the temporary frame issues (John though is not confident that we will not see more problems later; to me however problems are parts and parcel of a learning environment). The stem "seems" to fit like a glove after we redo the frame number zero after much discussions and efforts trying to address the problem. The root of the stem problem was in the frame number measurements - we could not really ascertain the original measurements after the sides had been planed down. With the frame number 2 re-make (by James), and aligning it into the strong back, the stem fit nicely into place.
John, James and myself worked on the starboard side frames to plan to receive the batten. The fit I think is ok but John thinks that there will be problems coming up later when the 6mm plywood for the topside will be laid. John and I then worked on the 12mm plywood for the bottom of the Dory. We hope to cut the plywood tomorrow (we have yet to finish the lofting on the plywood today) and then glue the joints to have the required 3.8 to 4 metre length. Brett gave us a few pointers on how to cut and make the bottom pieces (after we had done some lofting on the wood). So it will be a new starting tomorrow for the lofting exercise all over again with these few pointers.
William and Yin continue to work on the transom and making good progress on it. Well the transom is "installed" as I can see (frame number 6 had been removed - some of us question why we have to make the frame number 6 if it seem to be of no use in our perception). Though I am "not around" while they worked on this, I did see Brett giving them a few pointers as well. All these are parts of the learning process. Nevertheless the level of frustration is not as high as the previous week - in fact the frustration is very much tone down for all of us.
In a corporate environment especially in an American company where I used to work - "mistakes" like these we had made in the previous week could at the very least earn the employee a strong warning letter if not the sack. American company is known to have a "hire and fire" policy (yes they pay you to leave no doubt to avoid legal issue unless it was a clear case of gross misconduct). In fact I had "fired" (and paid them off) several people over my HR career with American companies. So it is better to "make mistakes" in a learning environment than in real working environment.
In future, I need to be more precise in my work and take extra precaution as over planing and cutting of materials resulted in poor work quality and is a cost even in a learning environment..
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