Molds completed!

One of the lofting boards in the workshop

Two mold halves about to be joined by Gina

I asked Gina how the lines on the lofting board were transferred to the pieces of wood used to build the molds. She asked if I knew of the nailhead technique. I did not, so she showed me how it works. Nails, like the ones in thi photo, are pounded in at regular intervals along the lofted line of the drawing, the the wood for the frame piece is aligned and gently impressed with the curvature of the drawing. You can see the nailhead indentations in the board.

Tools of the trade

Gina Pickton explaining some of the vagaries of the lofting/mold building process to me.

Lots of work to finish up and boats to be moved before the building of a whaleboat can take place. This will hopefully all be accomplished this week. Next a structure will be built in about the area occupied by the blue lift to attach and stabilize the boat skeleton, the molds, keel, stem and sternpost on a 'strongback' or table/platform as these boats are built upright, Norwegian style and not upside down which is the more common practice.


All Photos courtesy Snez'a Litinovic

Last Sunday, (meaning March 8) I met a new friend for the first time. We'd been conversing by email and since she lives in Philadelphia I thought we could combine a visit to the Independence seaport museum with a visit to the workshop to update the progress on the whaleboats. Snez'a had never seen the museum and we had a lot of fun viewing and discussing the collection. Snez'a is an architect (her firm, 119 Degrees Architects) so a lot of what she was seeing in terms of process and drawings and form made sense to her, and led to lively discussion. I had left my camera behind but fortunately Snez'a had a little battery time left on her camera and was able to get some photos. Gina Pickton was finishing up the mold building for the whaleboat project and was very gracious in showing us how the process worked and answering our questions.

Molds finished and stored awaiting the building of support structure and strongback

Same with these, one set for Philly and one for NYC

One half of the frame building jig being built by the school team from CHAD school in Philadelphia

ditto


photos courtesy Gina Pickton

Gina finished up the molds for both boats this week and was kind enough to send some photos along with a brief update on the progress.

"This week we finished up both sets of molds. Now we’re taking a moment to finish up the Elco’s Tranquility and Bear Cub, and the Marsh Cat to clear space before we continue on.
The pictures above are of both sets of Whaleboat molds ( for this workshop and the one in NYC at Rocking the boat, ed.), stored out of the way until needed

On Wed we have some regular kids from the CHAD school here in Philadelphia. They are working on jigs for the whaleboat.The lobster trap looking thing is the frame bending jig the kids are working on. We’ll get pictures of them working on it next week."

Once the project is properly underway, Gina will be sending me regular updates and I will attempt to visit as often as possible as well to document the build in Philadelphia, with project director Geoff McKonley updating me from NY.
Stay tuned.