The Shed No 99 November - December 2021

We really do appreciate it when our readers get involved in the magazine. In the previous issue of The Shed, we received a letter from a reader asking if we could help them with an article on building a power hammer. We didn’t have an article on that on the go so we asked if any readers could help. Happily, several readers from all over the country replied, saying they had built, or were building, one and were happy to share their project with us. So, even with the obvious difficulties of a nationwide lockdown, we managed to get an article written and photographed for this issue. A great effort from our Ritchie Wilson and unlimited assistance from our two hammer-building sheddies, Ian Knight and Mike MacMillan. Thank you all,…

the-shed.nz EDITOR Greg Vincent, editor@theshedmag.co.nz SUBEDITORS Karen Alexander, Richard Adams-Blackburn TECHNICAL EDITOR Jude Woodside PROOFREADER Sarah Beresford DESIGN Mark Gibson ADVERTISING SALES Dean Payne, dean.payn@parkside.co.nz ADVERTISING COORDINATOR Kealy Mathews CONTRIBUTORS Murray Grimwood, Jude Woodside, Enrico Miglino, Bryan Livingston, Bob Hulme, Jason Burgess, Ritchie Wilson, Nigel Young, Helen Frances, Tracey Grant, Mark Beckett, Gail Varga, Dean Jones, Mark Seek SUBSCRIPTIONS ONLINE magstore.nz EMAIL subscriptions@magstore.nz PHONE 0800 727 574 POST Magstore, PO Box 46,020, Herne Bay, Auckland 1147 parkside media. EMAIL contact@parkside.co.nz PUBLISHER Greg Vincent, greg.vincent@parkside.co.nz BUSINESS DIRECTOR Michael White, michael.white@parkside.co.nz GENERAL MANAGER Simon Holloway, simon.holloway@parkside.co.nz WORKFLOW MANAGER Emily Khov PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTION Ovato PHONE: 09 928 4200 NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS Parkside Media uses due care and diligence in the preparation of this magazine but is not responsible or liable for any…

To start at the very end: this is my little two-part nesting dinghy, ‘Punga’, sized and built to be the new tender to my 40-foot sailing yacht Local Talent. It is a Spindrift 10, 3.1m long and plenty big enough for two to four people, made from a design by B&B Yacht Design in North Carolina, USA. I built it in an old boat shed just up the hill from the Town Basin Marina, in my home port of Whangarei. It rows beautifully when distances are not so great, and can go farther afield under sail or motor. However, its seagoing options have also most definitely been exploited for nothing more than fun at times. Discovering solutions One of the chief beauties of making things myself is making them unique.…

Not only am I one of seemingly few women sheddies, but I am possibly one of the only contributors who does not actually own a shed! I have lived on and off a sailing yacht for more than 10 years, cruising the Pacific, Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean. Wonderful Whangarei is my home port, and the global Covid pandemic has kept me here — perfectly happily — for longer than I might usually stay, giving me the opportunity to build my first boat in a shed nearby. I am happiest when I have a project and have good skills across a number of disciplines, from dressmaking and sewing to concrete work, carpentry, and all manner of building work. Not only am I practical, but I am creative and have a bent…

Inflatables have a lifespan of about eight years if they are heavily used, and afterwards take up a lot of landfill space. I thought I could do better than that: create a boat that was repairable — potentially for generations to come — and offered greater possibilities for fun and practicality. There a number of advantages in the nesting dinghy that I have built against an inflatable: a boat that is practical to row — rather than being blown around; going farther afield without smell, noise, or expense; simply doodling around the anchorage for fun, by rigging it for sails. In addition, a 3hp motor is easy to lift onto its transom without a hoist and it goes quite fast enough — planes with one person aboard. Inflatables are famously…

This Punga Grove Avenue property was once the residence of Ron Davies who, in partnership with Alan Orams, founded what went on to become the highly respected Orams Marine Services Ltd, now based in Auckland. This major New Zealand marine business began its operations in the very shed that I was working in. When the current owner — and my dear friend — artist Barbara O’Sullivan, heard that I was interested in building a small boat she was tickled by the idea that the shed could come full circle and return to its boatbuilding origins. She had used it as a painting studio for many years, but it had morphed into a storage shed in recent times and my boat project seemed to offer the promise of breathing life back…