Halloween

Last Thursday I took part in the organizing the Halloween party. I helped Shun with making and selling sandwiches.

The plan was to provide snacks for the Halloween disco. We had to decide:

·         What types of sandwiches we want to sell

·         Whether we want to sell hot or cold sandwiches

·         What supplies will we need

·         What the price will be

·         Where will we locate our shop

Since we decide to make warm sandwiches, which was a good decision because they tasted much better than cold ones, we had to find sandwich makers. We decided to sell ham, ham and cheese and cheese sandwiches. We decided to locate in the psychology room that was close to the entrance to the disco and provided enough space. We agreed on a price of 50 roubles for ham and cheese and 40 for both ham and cheese. However later we decide to change prices and for the sake of simplicity sell everything for 50 roubles. Also we sometimes offered discounts like two for 80 roubles.

After that we had to organise the process in the most efficient way. I was making sandwich and Shun was cooking it in the sandwich maker. In order to keep them warm, we cooked only a few and then waited until someone ordered more.


We also were also selling some other snacks like sushi triangles and some sweet bakery. These were precooked.

                                     

This activity was a an example of service. It also involved raising awareness of issues of global importance since the money raised from selling the sandwiches will go to charity.

Although in general everything went well, there were some difficulties. We did not plan what the demand for the sandwiches will be and therefore did not really plan how much supplies we will need. So we ran out of bread quickly and had to send Jonny for to buy some extra.

International day

Last Friday before the holidays I took part in organizing the International Day. This was a preplanned service activity

On Thursday I helped with setting up the gym for the evening talent show. This included assembling the stage and making a screen for the film that was shown during the concert.

On Friday I took part in setting up the hall for the lunch. We unpacked the food that the students have brought and arranged it on the tables. Later when the parents started to arrive at school I showed them the way to hall and helped them to find where their kids were. During the lunch I helped with serving food.

After the end of the talent show we took the chairs back to the school. I took part in disassembling the stage and helped with taking the musical instruments (piano and the drums) back to the music room.

Overall the day was a great success. However there were some minor issues that we did not think about. One of them was the type of food that the students brought. Everything was very tasty but when we were unpacking the food it was sometimes hard to understand what type of food that was. Especially with pies and other pastry it was hard to guess what the stuffing was. And when students and teachers asked during the lunch what was inside and we did not know that ourselves.

We also had to consider the ethical implications of our activities when we were planning the activities. For example, at first we wanted to divide students into groups by their countries. However after some debates we declined this idea. We wanted the students to be united not divided. There would be competition between teams and we did not want it to be in the form of competition between people from different countries.There were a couple of other small planning issues with organising the national food, which we managed to solve.

Ship: reflection

I decided that the ship will be my main project. It involves both creativity and action because it involves me developing new skills and applying them to the model. The model itself is a challenge for me as it is the first fully wooden ship I am making.

Being reflective I have to mention that most things went well. For example I found working with wood was easier than I expected. That was because I looked for different types of plywood in advance and finally I found a piece that fitted perfectly. I first cut the edges with a small saw and then used a sharp knife for more precise adjustments. The key thing there was the sharpness of the knife. After I started changing the blade regularly it became much easier.

After I broke one of the parts I found out that the sheet of plywood is easier to break in direction than in another. So the parts should be placed in certain order on the sheet before cutting out.

To sum up I would like to say that the ship project is a good CAS activity for me because it requires me to learn new skills and undertake some challenges. It also shows commitment and perseverance in my activities. I faced some problems while I was working on it (I mentioned them earlier in this blog) that I managed to overcome successfully. It is an activity that I initiated myself. I required some planning when moving from step of “the production process” to another.

I also decided to take part in organizing the international day by helping to set up the gym for the concert and the talent show.

Stopper knots

A couple of most common stopper knots. Stopper knots are tied at the end of a rope to prevent it from passing through a hole or a block.

The first one is figure 8 knot one of the most common knots. I tied it on the end of jib and mainsail sheets.

The other one is called double overhand knot. It is useful when the diameter of the hole is bigger than the diameter of the rope.

Summer activities

As I mentioned earlier in this blog, I do some activities during summer time. One of them is sailing.

I started sailing three years ago and my overall aim is to get a skipper's certificate.
This is a pre-planned little CAS project for me because it involves learning new skills, undertaking new challenges (getting official certificates) and increasing awareness of areas for growth as I am constantly improving my skills. This also contributed to my ship building project as I learned how basic rigging works.

This summer I did to two more courses. After them I hired the boat alone with my dad and sailed along the coast. That was very different from sailing with an instructor. Although I knew the technique it was a challenge to me. I had to make all decisions on my own knowing that there won’t be anyone to correct me. If all the actions are quite easy if you do them one by one, when you need to everything at ones it becomes difficult. You not only need to keep the boat on course and adjust the sails but also think in advance about the shortest course and anticipate sudden wind changes. You need to decide on your strategy, for example: stay closer to shore and do more tacks and be ready for wind changes caused by the land or stay out. At the same time you must be ready to change plan fast if the wind shifts or increases/decreases. At first I was very nervous especially when the sail got stuck when we were putting it up. However I managed to solve the problem and the rest went ok.

Ship: update

There has been quite a while since my last report about the progress with the ship. The planking of the hull is completed by 50%.

I thought that a plain wooden deck will not look very nice, so I decided to imitate planking. For this purpose I used small wooden strips. They look like little spades an are used for decorating dishes. I colored their sides with a black marker to imitate the 

caulking.

The stands located at the perimeter of the deck are supports for the bulwark (the part of the side of the ship that lies above the upper deck).

Then I decided to do the masts. The main mast was shaved out of a lath with a square cross-section. This was not easy because the mast is not just a cylinder, it's diameter decreases with height. The foremast was easier to make because I used a chopstick instead.

It is too early to attach the masts to the hull at this stage. I will attach them when the hull will be finished.

On the last photo you can see the foredeck and quarter-deck. I will also imitate planking on them.

More knots

A couple of new knot that I have learned.

Clove hitch:

Along with the bowline and the sheet bend, it is often considered one of the most common and important knots. In sailing it is often used to initially position a fender hanging from a rail.

With certain types of cord, the clove hitch can slip when loaded. Also with smaller diameter cords, it may become difficult to untie after being heavily weighted.

 

 

Fisherman's bend:

The Fisherman's bend or Anchor bend is a knot used for attaching a rope to a ring or similar object.

Sea knots

As I mentioned in my updated CAS plan, I will be learning sea knots. It is useful to me since I do sailing and will also be useful when I will start making rigging for my ship model. It is also related to the CAS outcomes because it involves learning a new skill.

So to start with I will show to basic knots that I already know.

Bowline:

The Bowline is considered to be the boaters' prime knot. It is used to tie a loop in the end of a rope. It has the advantage of not jamming, compared to some other loop forming knots.

Reef knot:

Reef knot or square knot a general purpose knot for tying two pieces of string. However, it cannot be overly stressed. The knot gets its name from its use on sailing ships, when the sails were "reefed" - rolled up and tied to the cross spar with a reef knot.

Project: film

As I already mentioned, I decided to make a film out of the clips that were recorded when my father went to Galapagos islands with the diving club.

I have spent some time watching what was recorded and and thinking of the best way to join it together. One the questions that I faced was to decide which editing program to use. I thought that using a advanced video editing software like Final Cut Pro would not be the best idea for this particular project because it would take a lot of time just to learn how to use it. Taking into account that the project should not be too long I decided to use iMovie. It has most of the necessary tools and is not too complicated.

However, iMovie had one considerable disadvantage: it did not support the MPEG file format in which the clips were recorded. So the next step was to find a good video converter. After reading some reviews I decided to download Micro Video Converter. It is a cheap but surprisingly good program. I tried it on a couple of clips and it  converted them to apple mp4 almost without reducing the quality. So I am currently converting the clips and thinking on the best way to join them together.

Ship: planking

As I already said, I have started planking my model. I used stripes of 1mm plywood. Because of their thinness they were very fragile. Only after a couple of them have broken I remembered that it is useful to put them in water for 15-20 minutes before gluing.

On the photo below you can the keel. It consists of three parts (one of the joints is visible on the picture) and is glued over the paper that supports the planking. The forward part, which is called the stem, was very hard to cut out. With an electric drill I made a lot of small holes on the perimeter until it was possible to break the part off. After that I adjusted its shape with a sharp knife.

Updates to the activity plan

Project: film

My Dad went with a diving club to the Galapagos Islands where he made some video clips. I thought that it would be great to make a film out of those. So I offered my help for the diving club. I think that it is a nice project for my CAS program because I will be learning some new skills and doing a bit of service. Also personally I would like to do it. After the CAS film competition I wanted to try to make a film using better software. And now I have a chance to do that.

New skills: sea knots

For the last two summer holidays I have been learning to sail. An essential part of sailing is learning sea knots. Of course I already know some like ‘bowline’ and ‘reef knot’ but I want to learn more. So this term I am planning to learn some more knots, maybe one knot a week.

Personal challenges

This is just a set of targets for me to work for. They involve activities that I have been doing before I started my CAS program.

• ·      Golf. Practice sings: improve distance and accuracy. 120 m with 7 iron.
• ·      Sailing. Improve run (going downwind), gybe with minimum loss of speed. In future perspective Iam planning to get a captains license (that is after I will be 18)
• ·      Skiing. Develop technique in general.
• ·      Diving. Improve my buoyancy.

These are activities that I usually do on holidays. I will post reviews on my progress when I will have chance to do them with a more precise explanation of the challenge.

I will also continue the activities I was doing before.

Ship

I have spent quite a lot of time on this holidays working on the model. I have finished the deck. It is now almost ready for gluing. The next step will be the planking. I have spent a lot of time thinking what will be the best way to do this. For the scale that I have chosen the planks must be quite thin. Finally I decided to glue stripes of thick paper between the ribs and than glue the planks to the paper. At the bow and the stern where the curvature is maximum I used pieces of foam plastic which I than shaped to the desirable form. First I glued only half of the strips so that it would be more convenient to glue the deck.

Then I glued the deck and the rest of the stripes.

I have already started gluing the planks. I will post some photos of that later.













P.S. I almost forgot to mention that the mission statement (I wrote about it earlier) actually won the first place together with another group. Thanks to my teammates: Han and Benny.