Page 65 - recollections of a life in Porthleven

The keel was laid out, the dead wood cut, shaped and bolted to the keel. The
steam post and stem post was made and bolted into the knees. The next thing
was the frames/moulds were made (the shape of the boat which are
temporarily fixed onto the keel) and they look similar to the ribs in your
body.

I kept asking Dad, ‘How are we going to get the boat out of our back yard?’
The width between Trewarvas and the house next door was smaller than the
width (beam) of the boat. He replied many times, ‘She’ll be lifted out’. This
puzzled me greatly, ‘lift her out’??? But eventually I started to believe him.
Was my Dad, who worked for the M.O.D. at the Royal Naval Station,
Culdrose going to organise a helicopter to lift her out! What a silly thought
that was but it would have been possible. Anyway, one evening during tea
Kenneth Matthews who lived two doors up from us came in. After we
finished tea and a cuppa (I’m sorry to say we left Gran with all the dishes)
the three of us walked down to Salt Cellar Stores. When we got there it was
out with the tape measure to measure the width of the entrance and then
moving to the back of the stores we marked the timber floor for the boats
length and her width (beam). It was to ensure there was enough space to
build her and to make sure there would still be enough room to get Kenneth’s
boat in (PZ9 – The Isabelle) and another one or two boats in. Boats were
kept in the store over the winter months so as owners could work on them.

So that was sorted, we were going to build our boat in Salt Cellar Stores.
But how were we going to get the keel etc down to the stores? If I only
thought about the work done so far. The stern etc were only bolted so it
would be easy to unbolt them. But how do we get everything from Trewarvas
down to Salt Cellar Stores? Thanks to the Naval Base one Friday afternoon
an articulated lorry turned up, and with some good friends to help us load
the lorry. After a couple of trips everything was transported down to Salt
Cellar Stores. The next morning work started in earnest. Henry Willey came
in to help us set the keel on her blocks and on her correct leaves. That was
the start of fourteen months of work to build our boat.

We worked on her every evening, home for tea after our day jobs and then
down to the stores until 10pm or so. Again, Gran was left with all the dishes!!
On Saturdays work on the boat would start at about 9am up until about 4pm