Back home

The away party returned to Orkney on 30 March having driven up from Dorset the previous day & night in heavy rain. The return trip was delayed by a couple of days due to a failed wheel bearing which had to be replaced. Despite being covered the yole filled with some 20 buckets of water all of which had to be removed manually after arrival. The weather was far worse in the south with thick fog being added to the mix. The motorways though, were relatively free of both traffic and fog so good progress was made.

The drivers with Ian Richardson after arrival in Orkney

Away party

A small team of one has gone south to tow a yole back to Orkney. More information about the yole will forthcoming in the future. In the meantime other volunteers are continuing with work at the Old Herring Factory. 

Open Day

Alongside the Orkney Men's Shed, OHBS organised an Open Day at the Old Herring Factory in Stromness today. The south isles yole Waterwitch was placed outside as the 100 year old attraction. Other boats and exhibits were displayed inside out of the wind and rain. A good turn out was achieved in the morning.

Prep, prep & more prep

Prep day for Open Day tomorrow. Lots of moving, cleaning & reorganising. We put up numerous displays and pulled out a number of the boats currently in the store (all small ones because we are still waiting for the new boat door to be installed). Some time was spent fitting a vice to the new workbench, there is still a little more work to do on the bench before we can declare it ready for us.

Bench, Boats & Signs

After a bit more work on the new workbench during which we added a couple of 45 degree braces to the outside legs we set off to move a boat. Waterwitch has not seen the sun since October 2019 but as she is 100 years old in May this year (2023) we pulled her out to star in an Open Day event to be held in a couple of weeks time.

We have also finally got a sign installed outside the new storage facility which should make it easier for visitors to find us.

Working on the new bench

Work on the new workbench is proceeding. The top has now been attached to the legs and longitudinal  lengths added at the bottom of the legs. Bracing struts will be added to the two end legs. We may then add skirts. A large vice will be fitted once the woodwork is finished.

Spring Cleaning

With an Open Day in a couple of weeks we have started to gather the items we will need for the Open Day and tidy up the workshop and surrounding area.

Never enough

You can never have enough clamps. Here we are gluing up 4.8m lengths of timber to serve as a bench top.