30102011(Marathon volunteering)

Three weeks flew away. From the time this vacation began, actually I was going to read books and do some extra study I couldn’t do during this term but I totally was like a stuffed pig and do nothing, has however thought about the way I am going to go. I sort of wasn’t pleasant because of rejection from some of boat builders I applied for a job, most of which hasn’t even replied me yet. It was my mistake that I thought my bachelor degree in naval architecture and two years period of my career in HHI could help me get a job as a boat builder. No way. The first thing I have to do is apparently improving my English at least I hope to find a job here in New Zealand. Except that thing, there is probably no difference between other guys and me in my class (my classmates are really nice and cool indeed though) or even in real world. Anyhow, I set my goal. During the holiday, there were rugby games and my wife and I watched all matches of the All blacks, quarter finals and semi-final as well. The final match between All blacks and France was really exciting that we couldn’t take our eyes off on the TV and move at all. All blacks has won the match. We bought a small reasonably good printer which is scanning, photocopy available with wireless signal away from home like if I ordered printing at Unitec by I-phone or something, it will take my signal and print automatically at home(cool~). Basically, we separated our duty of housekeeping that I do dishes and vacuuming, my wife cook food and mostly do laundry and the rest of them are randomly flexible choice of us. I suggested my wife to change this during the holidays so she did everything during her holiday and I did everything during my one. I realized I am not quite a good chef. My swim academy had a holiday class for 10 days but I got my time off because my ear canal inflammation that I used to have in Korea, it is getting better though. Looking around a couple of websites about yachts, boat builders and yacht communities, I kind of found my goal I mentioned above.

We volunteered for marathon held by Adidas today. Getting up 5 A.M which is unusual, we walked to Victoria Park and we could find Ashley who was our volunteering manager (?) from probably the heart corporation. Our duty was make sure the runners going through the finish line keep moving and not let them sit on the road because if someone starts to sit on the road it would be messy and not a good idea to stand up again which is really hard for them having run through 20 km or the full course. One thing I remember was I told someone tend to sitting on the road to keep moving but actually he was a blind runner with a guy helping him. I felt so sorry about that (hmm…. but did I have to? He was a real runner same as other guys or even better than others.) Anyway, It was really good experience for us, because I’m having harbor crossing two weeks later and I sort of pre-experienced about the festival like this. There were roughly 700 volunteers but I couldn’t see most of them and the idea of volunteering is helping the competitors concentrate on their way to go and their game. Actually, this game today was a massive one that I realized after the game finished. On the way to countdown, we came across Andrew and his wife (I forgot her name…). His wife was a runner today and he encouraged her when she left 7 km of her race, which is great.

06102011(reflection of this week)

I am having vacation for two weeks. We learned whole lot of things this week but I had no time to memo as it was teamwork and time is money, I just could not. This is the first time I build a boat. First, we chose a bed but actually we have to make it but there were few ones the other students had already used before. Our dory LOA is 3.491m but the bed is a bit shorter so we had to extend it. Bed has to be level and the surface of it has to be smooth. Strong enough to work on that will be good and make the height good to work. Make sure those conditions are ok, attach a block on the legs (inside is better, no stuck) and fix them on to the floor. It doesn’t have to be super accurate (width and length) and neat for making the bed because it is not a part of our vessel but I thought it would be better to make it more accurately. The accuracy may help or guide later. We fixed the string for centre line and it has to have tension like a bow string and must not be touched anywhere. We used an aluminum straight edge that we had used at lofting to mark each station on the bed with running measurement method and a square rule. Chris said the measuring has to be from F.P. Lance, Jibreel, Jun, Tapu, Stephen and me are our team and I think we are a good team.

Chris told us about spiling planking but I didn’t follow what it means. We lofted temporary frames of each station on the pieces of MDF which were used by former students and also lofted on new one as well. Some of frames were bigger than MDF so another piece of MDF was attached by PVA. We used plastic vinyl underneath MDF glueing but I thought cardboard was better to be used so that can breathe well. Anyway 3 hours was quite enough to smack them except the surface underneath (not a problem). We used table saw, band saw and disk sander. Spoles (I don’t know the spelling) were cut too thin to support the frames mounted so we laminated them 2 into 1 again to make thick. We had to make sure which position (forward and aft of the station line) the spoles have to be fixed especially Station 3 (still don’t know where to put it). We mounted all of them except station 3 because of making the laminated frame (I don’t know this name is correct). We set up two braces diagonally from station 2 to the bed and the other stations will be fixed by using small pieces of wood each other. Make sure the length between each station is same from the bottom of frames to anywhere of those ones (use level and check the frames plum). Each angle (chine or sheer) on the frames need lines for reference after bevel them or whatever, otherwise we lose exact size or point. Don, who was one of boat owners as a customer of Unitec, came to us and have a talk about what he liked and disliked about the boat he bought which was a sister of our boat. It was quite a good time for us because we have to communicate with boat owners and listen to their satisfaction and complain. (bulkhead hatch, coving, midship laminated frame, thwarts, painting and weight of paint, bung, rowlock chock, etc. Before lunchtime, we went to Marae which is a building represents the idea of mixture of Maori culture and Immigrants culture but to tell the truth I didn’t understand what they were saying. At the end of the class, we changed the blade of the bigger band saw downstairs.

Yesterday was the last day this term. We spent much time for making laminated midship frames, using buzzer, thicknesser, belt sander and band saw. It was quite hard to make them as thick as possible under 7mm and skimmed. We used a guide when using band saw because that was much easier and neater and used a piece of wood to prevent wobbling because they were too thin that the roller inside can easily make them banded. When using belt sander, we turned on suction switch to make them flat. I realized that even we are making temporary frames or whatever the more accurate, the shorter the time consuming at the end of the day. We heated the woods we dressed up about 20 minutes by using steam machine which is not pressurizing one. It takes about an hour and a half to heat it up and did good work on the woods. Chris said that prepare everything that we had to use like clamps or saw horse and blocks of wood because they lose heat in a few seconds. We have to bend them and clamp them as quick as possible.

I will read some books on this vacation. Weather is good today. There are so many things to do….

Think about

MDF (Medium density fibreboard)

Small blocks in the corner inside

Particle board

PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol)

Capping (what is this?)

Grumpy

Clumsy

Screw angle

Principle of screw working

Coving

Quarter knees

Smack

Datum point, line, plane

Siding

Moulding

Bulkhead

Laminated midship frame

Surface development

Spiling planking

spile

Grain

http://www.rickcorless.com/pathpage10.htm

What else....