Robyn (who will be quick to point out that it was actually Gever) has introduced Tinkering School to the game of Mexican Train and it’s become somewhat of an epidemic.

Maxine takes a turn at sewing. Our hope is that we can hold the seam closed with thread, but then weld it water-tight with wax.

Maxine claims that she really prefers repetitive tasks that allow her to get something cool done with out having to make a lot of hard decisions along the way. “You just like to space out,” counters Hanna.

Gabe is determined to get the foot-pedal steering system working, but his teammates are just a little too sleepy to concentrate on the problem.

Isaac takes a turn at the needle to sew tops onto the catamaran pontoons. There is some concern that the pontoons will sit too low in the water and have a tendency to fill up and sink if the tops are not closed.

There’s a little bit of a backup in the wax application process, so Maxine is waiting patiently (and probably spacing out a little too).

In an effort to get done before lunch, we put four brushes to work on the biggest boat. Maxine, Gever, Gabe, and Jacob are all old hands at this now, and the boat gets done in record time.

It happens to first-timers. They just don’t know how to pace themselves for the non-stop building frenzy that is Tinkering School. Leo has fallen asleep on the deck of the studio, wrapped in a piece of canvas and surrounded by half-built rudders and paddles.

Hanna gets the task of cutting out the deck plates for the catamaran.

The outrigger has been decorated with thornless blackberry leaves.

We move the hulls to the shade while we take a break for lunch. Left to right, outrigger main hull, outrigger, pontoon, pontoon (the latter being the basis for the catamaran).

The outrigger main hull also has it’s own decorative motif.

You never know when it’s going to sneak up on you. Leo seems particularly susceptible.

Fitting two twin-hull water craft and a kayak on the truck and trailer turns out to be a little complicated. Jacob takes a moment to adjust a paddle.

Theo’s father, Michael, stops by to watch the boats get put in the water - we enlist his help in getting all the parts down to the beach.

Until now, neither of the boats has been fully assembled. There turn out to be lots of little issues - like how one of the paddle wheels hits the connector bamboo that holds the outrigger at the right distance.

Leo and Jacob collaborate on the paddle wheel setup.

Hanna and Theo tie the new decks on for the first time while Maxine talks smack about their catamaran.

Maxine trims off the excess on one of the bamboo cross bars.

The blade on one of the paddles is spinning due to a naive lashing attempt. Gever demonstrates the proper technique for securely attaching a stick to a board with line.

Isaac and Spencer have been chosen to take the catamaran out for it’s first sea-test - mostly because they are the lightest and there are some real concerns about how low the pontoons will sit in the water.

Maxine and Jacob literally drive circles around the catamaran - which sits dangerously low in the water, and whose innovative flap-drive doesn’t seem to work at all.

(that title is a play on the lyric “monsoon rain” - does that make sense or is it just so late at night that it seems clever to me? -ed)

The pontoons only have an inch or two above the waterline, and one of the tops is letting in a lot of water. The team will address this problem back at the studio by possibly adding another layer of canvas to the top.

Despite the fact that the crank didn’t get fully glued, and one of the paddlewheels had to be severely trimmed, the paddlewheel outrigger is surprisingly quick in the water. The catamaran team has decided to junk their flap-drive and build a paddle wheel for their boat too.