Monthly Archives: August 2014

my workshop – 1

Published: | Categories: kayaking, workshop

lmost finished with upgrading my woodworking workshop, just some more painting, fitting and cleaning up jobs needed! This would be a “well – equipped, well – organized” place to carry out my upcoming projects, which is getting more and more sophisticated! Several assets showed below, including my new Makita MLT100 table saw, the Dremel power tools and other wood carving tools, the Maktec MT362 router and its home – brew routing table, the air compressor and nail gun, a dozen types of chemicals for epoxying and painting, etc… basic things for what could be called a boat – building – workshop! 😀

Drawers for storing various hand held power tools, all these tools need proper care and maintenance.

Makita MLT100 table saw, with this, I can cut wood to the desired sizes, without having to have them cut at the wood mill nearby.

Dremel’s MultiTool and MotoSaw, suitable for small wood working. These are intended for some marquetry works later on.

Maktec MT362 router and its being – built routing table. I used the router itself to install the steel center plate holding the machine underneath.

Various chemicals, the excellent Titebond II wood glue, the 511 epoxy putty, wood carving tools, air compressor, the new Bosch circular saw.

Some more shots around my workshop. Sooner or later, I would need a dust collecting system, or maybe just a vacuum cleaner.

My woodworking workshop

craftsmanship

Published: | Categories: kayaking, workshop
Tôi đang đi, đi trên sông chở đầy nắng hồng.
Đêm nay nghe tiếng sóng biển Đông,
Tôi đang nghe, tôi đang nghe..

ften, I’m not quite pleased with my boat building products, it’s not up to the quality level I’m expecting. And quite regularly, I’m in a dilemma situation that I don’t know what I should improve on: my craftsmanship or my seamanship. (Well, I know, all sound big bold words: craftsmanship & seamanship, but let use them anyhow). The fact is that I’ve just turned to woodworking and boat building for around a year, there’re lots of things still to learn and to improve.

I’ve decided to invest on improving my ‘craftsmanship’. Many hours spent on reading documents and browsing woodworking, boatbuilding forums. Also decided to upgrade my small workshop with more professional tools: a table saw, jig table saw, router and a routing table, air compressor and nail gun, etc… I’m in the preparation process of building Hello World – 3, my next boat, a boat I can trust my life on in the upcoming journeys, and I want to do it as good as I can.

As for Hello World – 3, there’ll be no fixed schedule. All boat designs and boat buildings is kind of compromisation, there’s no such thing as “ultimate perfection”, but I’ll do it until it’s good enough, with no pressure on a launch day, and as my free times permit. There would be lots of new things built into this Hello World – 3: electric pump, battery, electronics, and solar charging system, etc… That’s still a long way to go, concentrate on the basic task of building woodworking tools for now!

It looks like that I’m turning into a cabinet maker for now 😀, of the 3 pieces of “cabinet”, one will be the pedestal for my new Makita MT100 table saw, one would be a routing table (to be fitted with the Maktec MT362 router), and the other table will be used for small cutting and carving tasks with the Dremel’s MultiTool and MotoSaw. I’m adding more and more into my tool collection: Bosch (and it’s subsidiaries Dremel & Skil), Makita (and it’s subsidiary Maktec) and Fein.

These ‘furnitures’ are really basic things built with plywood, some wooden frames, and all painted, so I put ‘aesthetics’ aside and focus on usability. One day, I’ll build all my wooden household objects in finer quality myself, but for now, just these simple woodworking facilities, which I need to complete within this month. The plan is to have Hello World – 3 building started somewhere next month, a huge pile of planned works to be done before the rainy season returns the next year…

Additional assets for the workshop, a small coffee table and 4 chairs, for taking a beverage in the hot tropical afternoon. All built from cheap plywood, and painted with wood color, this is also to test my new idea of painting and color pigment mixing, all takes only a day to complete, a quick and dirty job indeed. Building fine and good looking furniture, like building a good boat, takes lots of time and labour, so I’m pleased with these crude but functional things for now.

My woodworking workshop

figures

Published: | Categories: boat-related, kayaking, sailing

ver thought that the Golden Age of Great Explorers was long over!? Think twice, it’s not quite so indeed. There’re lots of great adventurers out there still nowadays going on redisconvering old things in new ways, in finding the meanings for their lives. Below are just a few of them… men, women; teenagers, middle ages, old ages; paddlers, rowers, sailors… all in a very long list of figures which I follow closely and passionately along their adventurous paths. Read their stories thoroughly to understand their thoughts and attitudes toward life.

Aleksander Doba

The Polish adventurer turned 67 years old as he paddled his 21′ specially – designed kayak across the Atlantic, making more than 6500 miles in 6 months. Departed from Lisbon, Portugal on October 5th, 2013, when landed in Florida, May 23rd, 2014, the man finished a journey believed to be the longest open – water crossing ever made by a kayak in history. It’s not until 40 years old that Aleksander Doba started with kayaking and paddling, he’s been living by the motto: It’s better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a lamb.

Sandy Robson

An Australian kayaking instructor with lots of feats under her belt (including a 6000 km journey along the Australian coastline). In 2011, she started out for a trip from Germany to… Australia in an effort to retrace that of Oskar Speck, the legendary German kayaker who made that 50,000 km voyage in seven years from 1932 to 1939. Sandy Robson has finished the 4224 km 1st phase and the 2260 km 2nd phase, and is currently on the 3rd stage of her great journey, cruising Sri Lanka and the India east coast. For more details, follow her website here.

Roz Savage

An English ocean rower who crossed the Atlantic in 2006 in 103 days, Roz Savage then finished the 4811 km crossing from California to Hawaii in 99 days in 2008, after a previous failed attempt in 2007. Two additional legs from Hawaii to Tarawa, and from Tarawa to Papua New Guinea were made in 2009 and 2010, finishing the conquest of the largest ocean. Roz Savage successfully completed her Indian ocean crossing on 4th October 2011 in 154 days, becoming the first woman to solo row the “Big Three”: Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.

Chris Duff

An American sea kayaker notable for his large scale projects and world – record breaking attempts, having kayaked over 14,000 miles since 1983 in various endurance expeditions: the circumnavigations of Iceland, Ireland, New Zealand and Great Britain. I really like his saying: there are very few times in our busy lives where we have the luxury of true solitude. I love the simple focus of these journeys; the physical challenges of the sea balanced by the inner calm which comes from living purposefully and so simply.

Laura Dekker

The 14 years old girl, the youngest ever to circumnavigate the globe. Born on a boat, fought the Dutch government intervention and attempt to block her from going out to sea, and sailed the two – year – long, 27,000 miles trip around the world, alone! A stunning record that would stand for many years to come. I remember a few years back, watching her news and updates along the voyage in the 11.4 m boat Guppy at lauradekker.com. Let see also Maidentrip, a 82 minute documentary about the journey around the world, and into adulthood!

Matt Rutherford

Matt sailed a 27,077 nautical mile lap around North America and South America continents, in 309 days, on his 27′ boat St. Brendan, an incredible feat includes rounding the treacherous Cape Horn and the icy, dangerous Northwest Passage. North of the equator, in a 50 – knot squall on his April 6th birthday, everything broke, once and for all: the engine was toast, the wind generator was finished, there were no lights or power, nothing. Happy birthday, Matt!. For more information, read his website: solotheamericas.org.

Capucine Trochet

Suffered from a genetic disease (the Ehlers–Danlos syndrome) that kept her in wheelchair for months, Capucine decided to fight and to win, and I had an irresistible urge to go, to get back to sea, to the sea…, J’ai éprouvé un vrai sentiment de plénitude… (I’ve enjoyed a real sense of fullness). Behind the pretty face of great sweetness, this young French woman hides an iron will, with which she sailed across the Atlantic in 2012 and 2013 aboard her Tara Tari, a Bangladesh traditional style fishing boat. Follow her stories at whereistaratari.blogspot.com.