Building on a small scale

While I get some other jobs out of the way (mainly restoring the Mini that is lurking in the background in all the garage shots of the kayak build) I am building on a smaller scale in the house during the dark winter evenings.

I'm trying out the Selway-Fisher Rhum plans at 1:10 scale before trying it for real. The reason for this is I want to change the internal layout, moving bulkheads and fitting permanent side seats, and I want to make sure it all fits. Even small boats are fairly complex 3D shapes an it helps to make sure the visualisation I have in my mind will actually work for real.

Last night I swapped around the bulkheads and made the forward one, the one the mast step and partner are against, full height. This will allow a small foredeck to be fitted, with storage underneath.

I think this will be a really usable little dinghy and I'm quite excited about the build. I just nee to keep the end in site and make sure I don't add so much unnecessary stuff that I can no longer walk the boat down to the ramp. Pictures will follow once I've got the deck fitted on the model.

Oh, and I've pretty much decided that the boat will be named Hope, after this amazing instrumental by Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson.