On Wednesday morning and late afternoon, we had the FRP sessions of applying the gel coat and later the chopped strains glass onto three moulds in the FRP room. The vapour generated and toxicity of the resin spray and the MEKP used were reminders to me of the hazardous environment of the composite boat building industry. Safety and health TTEC 3000 portfolio assignment became mentally relevant to me.
I started to do my portfolio for the TTEC 3000 and the Small Craft Build this week since I would be having visitors from Singapore fro the weeks following. After doing the reflection for the Small Craft Build, a more academic and philosophical question kept bobbing in my head - "Is boat building a science or an art?"
Thinking back to the 7th March - the first day of the CAT course, I realised that I have traveled quite far in my learning journey. From a more conceptual abstraction learner I have become a more Active experimentation learner. Using most of the tools and the various workshop machines is becoming more of a second nature which could led to possible safety critical situations if I become complacent as I travel onto toward being unconscious competence in their uses.
Boat building started as a science for me with most of the sessions being theory oriented and in the classroom environment and lectures.The various calculations, the lofting requirements, the dynamic of the winds on the sails and the calculations to arrive at the various critical points in a boat such as the centre of gravity or buoyancy and even the CAD sessions are all seemly scientific in nature to me. However when the actual build began; the planing and pairing of the materials and the application of the resins become an art to be acquired and an artful task in the hands of the master boat builder. How the final product looks depend very much on the skillfulness and thoughtfulness of the builder bring to the boat building process. The fact that every boat built is a "compromise" and a balancing act, of all the requirements of the owners, the conditions to be experienced at sea and the availability of the types of materials on hand as well as the cost and how deep the pockets of the owners or builder, also serves to reinforce my conclusion that boat building is very much an artistic profession as well.
It has been an exciting learning journey for me for the duration of the CAT program. Nevertheless this would be as far as I would go as I do not intend to continue onto the bachelor level. I see no compelling reasons to continue along the same chartered route at this stage of my life. I may seek out another learning journey which would take me to another area of the "ocean" (maybe still related to boat).
