Page 66 - recollections of a life in Porthleven

or later. Of course we always stopped for lunch which was always one of
Gran’s pasties and either heavy cake or saffron buns. Her pasties and heavy
cake would keep any man going for hours.
One Saturday, in a way, we had a day off from working on the boat.

We drove up to a wood importer at Millbay Docks in Plymouth to buy a
tree! Why a tree? We needed a very large tree for the planking of the boat.
A tree was purchased which was large enough, when cut, to give us enough
wood for the planking, a delivery date was set and that was that for the day.
That was what I thought but Dad had other ideas. Instead of going home we
went to Salt Cellar Stores and put in a good afternoons work.

About a week or so later the timber was delivered. Unloading it all took a
number of hours as it had to be taken off manually as we had no machinery
to unload it with. I remember the lorry was parked across the road for a
number of hours, stopping the traffic. I know there weren’t a lot of tourists
about and no one complained about the road being blocked. Do you think
we could do the same today? I do not think so.

Dad made a steamer so we could steam the planks, making them pliable so
as when we put them onto the ribs the planks would bend and twist. It was
my job, on the way home from work, to nip in and put the steamer on. The
steamer consisted of a sump which had two hot water elements to boil the
water. The water sump was connected to a long pipe approx. 24 feet in length
and a diameter of approx. 20 inches. It was able to hold two planks and was
covered in old rags and bags to keep the pipe hot and the steam in. We had
no problem keeping warm in the winter months, the Store was just like being
in a sauna with all the steam.

It was very hard work at times, building the boat, but at the same time very
enjoyable and pleasing. Especially seeing it take shape and getting to certain
stages of the build such as getting the engine beds made up and fitted.
Building the bulk head and boring the dead wood for the stern tube. The
stern tube was made by Mr Kenneth Matthews, he also made the bilge pump.
Kenneth had a very good business making pumps and selling them all over
the world.