John and I continued working on the topside panel dimension. We did more than 4 attempts to figure out why the dimensions were different each time and did not add up to the length of the temporary frame side. At the end of this Monday, both of us were exhausted trying. Upon reflecting at home, I figured out that it could be that we were measuring a right angle length against the ideal arc length Chris came by and his advice was to get the bottom piece into place and then worked on the topside. This advice did not make sense to me at that moment as it is illogical to have difference dimensions when we were measuring the "supposedly" same length of the side of the temporary frames from the straight line drawn on the pattern. Furthermore the cut pattern seems to fit well onto the topside area.
Yin and William and Stephan were more successful in their areas of work - these were the bright spots to remedy otherwise a very frustrating Monday. Yin and William worked on Transom and later made the gunwales. Stephan worked on the bottom piece and finally we got the piece clamped onto the temporary frame. Stephan further plane down the sides when the bottom piece will meet the topside pieces.
This week Monday seems to have everyone in the class busying on their own small craft and the single tutor (Brett) was unable to feedback and answer questions from all of us. There were occasions when we had to wait and cannot move forward in our works. This is attributable to our fears of "making mistakes" after having being reminded that it was costly in material for the marine 12 mm plywood. A smaller student to tutor ratio would be great help for faster learning. We are lacking behind.
The prospect of becoming a boat builder to me is less attractive after the last two weeks. Unless these are beyond my comfort and recognizing the greater learning take place in the uncomfortable zone, I will press on.
Another thought on my mind - is that there seems to be a great deal of "wastage" in term of the materials used in our limited exposure to small craft - especially for a one off construction. Temporary frames is one such material. Can we do without them? I suppose we can - after I have looked up other means of boat construction. However the strongback still remain as a "compulsory" element in any boat construction except those commercially molding methods. There again this latter method has the cost of the molds which can be more extensive for a one off construction. In my mind, maybe that why boats are so expensive - more expensive than cars. The only method I have read so far which does not seem to incur such "wastage" is the stitch and glue method. On the other hand, there are also limitations on how far and big a boat one want to build using stitch and glue method.
My conclusions is that added material cost of boat building is a major factor in competitive boat building. With offshore competition , the boat building industry in New Zealand could compete only on designs and new technology not traditional methods of building a boat. Otherwise they have to compete on economy of scale which is not as easily available as in the automotive industry which requires huge capital investment in plant. Boats such as those built here are more for the luxury\leisure markets and such a boat does get utilize as frequently as a car. So there are fewer buyers which add to the competition.
No comments:
Post a Comment