Volume 21 Number 04 - The Wooden Boat Association

Crabber Progress
Work has been progressing on the crabber over the past few months. The well deck in the bow has now been
fibre-glassed and awaits painting. The framing for the fore deck back to the cabin is complete with knees and
plank to take the mast tabernacle. The rear deck and cockpit have now been framed and at present the lockers
in the cockpit seats are being finished. The cockpit floor is temporarily in place, which means I will no longer be
skinning my shins on the central beam!
Geoff Carroll
Club Night, 20 April
Considering that the weather forecast was for “scattered showers “ and that what we received at 7.00pm was a
torrential downpour for about 40 minutes, we had a good turnout of members ( 23 ). At the end of the evening
the Lake level had risen 10 cms and the centre road car park area was 45 cms deep.
Anyway, this did not deter our guest speaker Mike Ridley and his lovely assistant Eileen ( his wife ) from turning
up to show us all how to tie our knots properly, with the able tutelage of our own Paul Rubera and his son Sam ( a
qualified rigger ).
Mike is a member of the “International Guild of Knot Tyers” and had displays of knots for inspection but also
conducted a practical demonstration with a “hands on “ approach which had the majority of us in knots .. not
always the correct ones ! Who would have thought that there were so many variations of the humble bowline?
He also gave a good explanation on the different types of rope and the qualities of each, without becoming too
technical but aimed at us “boaties