Truly Amazing!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to visit the boat last week but I went this morning and was I surprised the lads are flying  and this was the boat to-day. When you think this boat was only started  the week of  the 21st January I think it is truly amazing of how much can be achieved  in such a short space of time.

Teak pieces attached in order to support a side ledge

Wedge and Ledge added

The boat is going to progress very quickly over the next few days and it will then be turned over. I went to visit a small bay near the shed where some of the boats are out on the water, it was a lovely bright sunny day..

Watch this Space for the Next Update!!!!!!Early Next Week........................................................

Visiting Artist Els Dietvorst

Els Dietvorst visited the Wexford Arts Centre on Friday, she gave a brilliant lecture on the work that she did in Communities in Belgium. Her projects were very interesting interacting with her local communities.

 Please look at her web site for more information a very interesting artist..the website covers all the projects she worked on:

http://www.fireflyprojects.be/projects

I found this text in a book on sociology from 1976

Ronald Frankenberg (1966) describes a community in the following way:

"Community implies having something in common. In the early use of the word it meant having goods in common. Those who live in a community have overriding economic interests which are the same or complimentary. They work together and also play and pray together. Their common interest in things gives them a common interest in each other. They quarrel with each other but are never indifferent to each other. They form a group of people who meet frequently face-to-face, although this may mean they end up back-to-back. That people in such an area of social life turn their backs on each other is not a matter of chance. In a community even conflict may be a form of co-operation ".

Small Boats in Wexford Town

Spring is Really in the Air To-day

For the first time this morning I felt Spring was in the air.. Our fourth visit to the boat I can't believe it how time is going so fast. With all the election brain washing it was great to go down to the boats and have some time out. Every time I visit I'm really amazed at the progress that is being made with the boat and I feel it's like seeing a baby every week and it's growing. The lads had begun riveting the planks. They used copper rivets and nails.

This is an awkward part to rivet as the plank can split 

Rivet cap being placed on top of the nail

Rivet being hammered on

Excess from nail clipped off

Making a smooth finish on the rivet

Copper rivet

Tools required for riveting

We all had a go at the riveting and we took to it like ducks to water! we had a great teacher. I thought it was something that you could really absorb yourself into doing. Maybe I only think that because I done a few and possibly after a few hundred I would be sick of it. As the boat narrows in, this is more tricky because you don't want to split the plank. So the expert did that for us novices. But I think we are learning fast. I think it's funny I never thought in my wildest dreams I would ever see a boat being made. It's strange how your life can take so many twists and turns. 

Whilst we were having a lesson in riveting the other lads were working hard on putting more planks on. The large larch planks have to be cut and planed and clamped on and measured. So a number of things were happening on the boat at the same time. We had a few little chats about getting out of the house and how important that is. While being at home can be nice every so often on a long term bases it can become very boring and uninspiring to say the least.

New plank being measured for cutting

 I marvel at the fact every time we are there how many people call in to see what's happening and how the boat is coming on. It seems that everybody in the community knows this is happening and call when they 

like. The older men have great stories to tell us too when we are there and these stories I find interesting I like history a lot.

So another interesting day out in the community, can't wait for next week already.....with all the college work to keep up to date with the week comes round pretty quickly. The lads are very helpful in answering all our questions it must be weird for them in a sense because we are taking photographs of every move like photography maniacs. But I think it is history in the making building this boat and the life it will have on the sea.

Third Week Already! at Southend

Great progress is being made on the boat since we visited last week. The lads where putting the third plank onto the boat, as the larch planks are put onto the boat they get narrower and are fitted into the knees/ribs .

Knee/Rib sanded down so the plank fits snugly

The planks at the stern end twist and these are very awkward planks to work on. The lads have great patients because the process is tricky by clamping the plank on and off until it fits properly a great amount of skill is required because they judge it by eye.

Stern

Twisted Plank will be riveted and screwed on

You can really get a sense of the size of the boat with the planks going on. The lads are very clear in explaining how the boat is made I find it very interesting as I wouldn't be someone who likes to makes things.

We all had a bit of a chat about the mature students in the college and a number of us talked about how we progressed to getting to college through P.L.C and V.T.O.S courses. The time goes very quick when we are there I would like to visit more but our schedule is quite full during the week.

As I'm not originally from Wexford and wouldn't know the town very well, it's great that I can have an opportunity to see what is happening in a community in the town, rather than just knowing the student community.

I've also realised that I have forgotten in many ways what community is as I have lived in a number of counties in Ireland over the last twenty years and I have never really been fully integrated into any of them, through my own doing I must add. But when I think back to when I was younger and the people in the area that I knew and seen every day even though they weren't friends. This project brings those memories back to me because people know each other in the area. So by moving around community became a distant memory.

At one time I was involved in doing things in the community in Dublin and I enjoyed it but for some reason when I left I drifted completely and with the drifting came isolation. So on a lighter note it's great to see people out interacting and talking to each other... so looking forward to next week's visit if I don't get to visit earlier.