Slow progress

(first published May 2005)

Slow because it rained a little this morning, and then I had to mow the lawn and cut down an old bullace (wild plum) tree. Then, after lunch, the sun came out and I was able to get on with Lugg's nose.

You may wonder why he's called Lugg; apart from the fact that he's a lugsail dinghy, Lugg is a character in the Albert Campion novels by Margery Allingham published in the first half of the last century. He's Campion's manservant, a semi-reformed thug with a heart of gold. He's reliable, solid, and not really built for speed. If Campion could be seen as a rather tippy racing yacht then Lugg is a sturdy, steady, safe lugsail dinghy. But a bit of a bruiser. Here's a description of him from 'Look To The Lady': ". . . . a mountail of a man with the largest and most lugubrious face . . . . his great muscular arms were bare to the elbow. For the rest, his head was bald, and the bone of his nose had sustained an irreparable injury."

My Lugg's nose had sustained a pretty awful injury if you remember. Here's a reminder of what I found when I started to take him apart:



So today I continued rebuilding his nose. Oh alright, the stem. I used chopped strand mat and polyester resin to start with, then finished off with body filler. Here's his new profile:



Having done that (and it needs a final touch of filler and more sanding) I started on the seat and rowlock supports. Here's the port side one clamped up and glueing:



My current thinking is that I'll brace the seat (thwart) with hanging knees from these supports. I'll try to include a diagram tomorrow. Hope the sun shines.