Forestvale Design Centre

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Home › "66" canoes again - this time in Huon Pine

Dave Hardy is a man of vision - make no mistake.....
He and his wife Ruth have created the Forestvale Design Centre on Bruny Island....
My small part is to run courses building my version of Brian Schulz's F1 skin-on-frame kayak. Courses are run over five or six days with between 4 and 6 people at a time......

Chris from Brisbane was willing to be our first student......
.....sort of an involuntry volunteer :)

Time to pack up the RAV4 and head off to Bruny Island for a week of fun and games :)

...with the deck completed we moved straight onto introducing Chris to the bandsaw.....final score??.... Chris 1/bandsaw nil.....

Smiles all 'round..........there's always time for a laugh during the day.....

.....and at the end of the day.....never tire of looking at this view........Day2 draws to an end.....

Day3 - The beauty of skin-on-frame construction - now you understand why I name all my projects "Smile" .....and Smile34 is shaping up to be as pretty as any.......

Day4 - One of those times when point and click cameras give startling results......

Smile34......last seen heading west........thanks for a great 5 days Chris.....and thanks also to Dave and Ruth, great hosts at Forestvale Design Centre...

Day5 - Chris took to the Greenland paddle as if he'd been chewing blubber all his life......another successful convert :)

Work space....

Chris taking the saw to the gunwale ends....

Deck finished in good time...

Farmer Chris and Farmer Dave checking out the fruit orchard.....

Back to work - planing paddle blank......

Day2 - Steaming ribs....

...and steaming ribs.....

...and steaming ribs..

Very satisfying..

Hard to keep the smile off Chris's face.

Too good a day to work inside...

..from tree to paddle...

End of Day2....looking good !

Not bad for three days work..

...and on the water..

There's that smile again - nice gloves - nice technique...

Chris getting intimate with Smile34...

...semi-clothed?

semi-naked??

Just so damn cool !!!

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