Fishing Smack…

…a couple of weeks ago we attended our first boat jumble.  A lovely day with lots to see and spend money on! We gave away lots of cards and the other day we recieved a phonecall from a very nice chap who picked one up.  Ah, the power of advertising.

IMG_1937The lovely 30′ smack was all but ready for launching, when the owner asked us to re-leather the gammon iron.  Normally an easy job but working up a ladder proved a lot harder then expected!

IMG_19432mm veg tanned leather was chosen for this job.  Although the radius of the iron was fairly large, it is important to get the stitching in such a location that the bowsprit will not chafe it.  The leather was prepared and moulded to shape, stitches were marked and sewing begun…

As usual saddle stitch was used as being stronger and much neater then the usual ‘lock stitch’ one sees so often on marine leather work.

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A section of 3mm shoulder leather was moulded and inserted to cover the head of a coach-bolt that fixes the gammon iron to the king post.  This was a potential chafe point and would have removed the lovely new varnish from the sprit quicker than a quick thing.

Finally the leather was treated to a waterproofing compound and soaked in leather dressing,  following trimming and burnishing of the exposed edges.  The bowsprit was tried for size and the owner reported that his sprit had never slid in and out as easy!

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