mean while down by the beach Tom Nollar shows up in a tizzie with a blank I sold him years ago questing a board like the one Velzy glued up in 59 with a scarf on the nose and another o the bottom ,
“it had so much rocker velzy was shaking his head,you are really making us work!” or some such,…
so out comes the yellow 9’2 velzy hand shape and the nose is too wide ,says he in that remnicient of Ben Gunn tone treading the line between here and not here we of the beach find comfortable and amusing
“the nose has to be more like this phil edwards here”
so out comes several templates on this finely cured 10’3’’ phil edwards thickie…
one two three rejected until yes that’s damn close…
the velzy is put on the ground and tom steps fore and aft with measured step and
" YEP FOUR STEPS TO THE NOSE THAT’S PERFECT"
the blank is trimmed to length to take the clamps to
take the half template
spread the tail wide to affect the “PIG” outline and ‘hips’
we’re off like the fifth at Tanforan
well it got dark as I was turning the rails
aaaaaa…shaping in the dark are ya?
ha ha thats a first
[its not but I dont say it aloud]
the next day tom shows with a fin freshly ripped from a hobie
mahogany and balsa and maybe brazillian cherry it is
takes some time to resist that option but I finally prevail
and set to work evolving a “rising sun” of balsa and redwood with zap a gap glue and hand pressure…praise zap cause I’m glueing and shaping wedges
at the same time
no table saw mind ya
and am shaping within an hour or so
the blank for the fin is so thick the job is stalled while we calm henry’s concern about the thought that we could make two out of one if we had a saw…
in the end I needed all the thickness to get it true
by dark 230 I have the fin as roughed as the board was,
I finished it off ,the board,nicely in the daylight and enscribed it VELZY LIVES…
the fin I woke and finished shaping before drinking water.
setting back water a full two and a half hours…
so tom didnt show today I finished Jimmy’s board and another 9’spec board and they wait attention in the darkened workshop
…ambrose…
as the Troglodytes raise the eyelid closest to the light at the cave entrance to see the light of dawn