Youen is the sons of lifelong friends, neighbors from my childhood. Friendship that travels through generations is something special. Our grandmothers were friends, I am friends with his parents and I have true affection for this young man and his brothers. Whether its for hard work of fun time, Youen is great to have around and its no question for us that he is always welcome.
The past month has been all about keeping the work going while negotiating with rainy weather. Luckily, on wet days, we had the mast to keep laminating. Youen, Mark and I’s work in the spar shop became efficient clock work. We worked together at sanding, gluing, clamping, unclamping smoothly without need to say much and so fast that we will miss the boy for our next spar.
Im adding more details on the actual spar construction at http://mimijane.ca/building-the-masts-and-spars
There has also been a fair amount of sandblasting and painting over the past month but I am happy to announce that we are done with the interior sandblasting and painting!! That is a mile stone!! Youen’s help has made possible to finish in one shot what we had planned to do in two goes.
We didnt want to have Youen sandblast as its a tough and not without risk task but there are so many other chores throughout the day that having a third pair of hands made it possible for each o to get some break times without ever stopping the work. His presence helped so much that we would have happily kept him for the rest of the summer.
We worked on the last inside sandblast for 11 hours straight, including set up and some of the cleaning. Mark or I were inside, blasting, non-stop until it was done. For most, Youen handled the regulator on the sandlbasting pot. It turns out he was better at it then me 😛 On one of Marks turn in the sandstorm, I replaced Youen at the regulating so he could go have lunch, Mark later commented on how I had done better regulating on the first go then the second…. Youen did the second (lol). He later helped me improve my sand regulating competences, we should be ok to finish the boat 😛
I’m hoping we didnt traumatize the kid too much… what will go through his head next time he sits on a beach? Flashbacks of lifting, shoveling, pouring sand…. sand in the air, sand in the teeth, sand in skin pores…. sand nightmares (evil laugh)
So here we go… interior sandblasting is over, there will be no more balancing in a sand storm, blinded by dust and tangled in a medley of hoses and extension cords while muscling a pressurized jet of abrasive. I’m not sure what to think… but… Oh yeah! comes to mind.
Sandblasting is not over though. We still have the whole outside of the boat to do. We tried to convince our young friend to stay with us for a few more weeks as we appreciated his help (and company) but he has other fun plans awaiting back home, in Brittany, and a ticket booked for his return. Wishing Youen some better weather back home, we said goodbye and see you soon again.
I do have more details regarding our sandblsting experience under the menu “sandblasting and painting”