Last-minute preparation

7am - check the boat: Bow waves from passing boats have bashed mine into the towpath so much in the last few days that the old wood has split. I knew I had to put fenders on the boat and kept trying to find time to do so but other things took priority. I knew it was a sacrifice and here it is. A skirt around the perimeter of the deck will strengthen this as well as the tyre fenders. The whole structure is a bit wavy when viewed from profile and this will be further strengthened by 18mm plywood sheets around 1.5m x 1.5m which are being secured as floorboards.

The underside wood has been bashed out. This was attached while the vessel was in the water, making it very tricky. I am confident that the wood on the underside of the ones constructed on land will not have the same issue. Wood will be thicker, more securely attached, tyre fenders will cushion the impact with the towpath and the boat will have a skirt perimeter to strengthen the structure.

Attached tyre as fender (left and 1/2 out of shot in photo)

I think I know who ratted on me. A Kurmudgeonly Kanal Karen who drives a commercial tour barge. He has passed by and scowled many times. When I mentioned it to Peyman, he said that there was a man standing and staring at us when we were constructing the vessel canal-side on that first launch day. He fits the same description of a man who I waved to at least twice as he drove his barge past and he scowled back. So many people loved what we were doing and smiled and took an interest. They were delighted by it. Funny how lurking among all that there are people who are bothered by it and it upsets them.

When I walked up and down the steps to collect and take wood to and from the car I kept seeing this. I think it sums up something quite important for me. I really like this piece of 'street art'. It is to the point.

From about 9:30hr I was cutting scarf joints for the 2 x 6 timber that will be the skirt perimeter. From having done so many of these I am getting a lot faster and better at it.

These are dry tested (no glue). The finger wedges are actually the most difficult part for me to cut. Weirdly. You'd think it was making the two pieces fit snugly. The big achievement for me today was measuring the cuts NOT with a marking knife (more accurate but more time-consuming) but a sharpie pen. My understanding of which side of each line to cut has improved to the point that I can use a pen to mark.

Final barrel run to Upminster. Collected 5 barrels (£50).

Barrels safely bck to the studio. 18:15hr. Still have more scarf joints to do for the 2x6 skirt perimeter. Knackered and aching.

While I was away, one of the shipmates, Andy, very kindly wrote this sign on my behalf to excuse the wood I have stored overnight outside the studio. Things go missing from here all the time. People nick bags that sit outside for 2 minutes. A couple of enormous steel girders that were stored outside (without a sign) went missing - who the fuck would take them. Obviously I thought about it. But I didn't. Anyway, it's a risk. I'm really asking a lot of the public with this project. A lot of material is sitting on the boat presently that can be taken legally as it's not secured or behind a lock and key. So far the public has surprised me with its respect for my precious bits of old wood. Except whomever moved my boat 3 hours into its life on the canal!

Final scarf joint of the day. Working on the street as we're not allowed to use power tools in the studio. Technically I'm not part of the studio if I'm not on the grounds of Langdale. Would prefer to be working in the garden but it's late on a Saturday and the tools are loud. I heard a baby crying at one of the quiet moments and I thought it was a bit unfair to carry on.

This old wood is such meaty stuff. It's so strong. This photo is another dry offer-up. You can see some of the red sharpie marks used to measure out the cuts. These joins will be glued and screwed canal-side. The final lengths of scarf-jointed wood will be 6.36m (length of boat) so there's no chance that could fit in my car in one piece. It has to be brought to the canal in 4 or so pieces and attached on site.

Peyman had been working on securing the wood to the underside of the sub-decks in the rear forecourt of the studio block. Power drill is less sonically invasive than the circular saw so can get away with working near the residents in the block at bedtime (1930hr). Following a discussion about the remainder of the work to do and taking into account our exhaustion, we concluded it was best to postpone the launch scheduled for the following day.

The remainder of the work to do before we can have the secondary launch:

1. Fetch lock key from Watford (2 hours)

2. Attach wood to underside (collect from storage, measure, cut, secure) 2 hours

3. Cut remainder of insulation (1.5 hours)

4. Buy metal strap (1 hour)

5. Charge boat battery (30 mins - collect from storage, work out how it works)

6. 2pm - move the boat to a mooring spot

While I am building this boat, I have very little juice left for the tigers. Before I go to sleep when I am at the very end of my resources, I pick up whatever I have within reach. I have been using a biro to draw on a stack of brown envelopes that I have next to my bed for some reason. The drawings are far less worked but I actually really like the mark making in this one. It's so free. The composition is balanced and it's light. A lot of the meaning in the boat project is about questioning my sense of perceived permissions: there is a voice in my head that says I can and can't do certain things. One of them is: the work I present on Instagram has to be of a quality to be understood by an average art-enthusiast. This is bollocks. I am allowed to do work that some people think is utter shit. Fuck em. They can go elsewhere. It's my instagram page, it's my work, so I should do it for me. Exorcising this stifling prohibition constitutes artistic development for me. I want to be taking steps forward that I need to take.