Two days of no rain and the forecast for:

All the plugs are now made and glued in. I came across this supplier of fibreglass, kevlar and carbon fibre sleeves and thought they might be a good idea for bamboo battens.
http://www.solarcomposites.com/light-sleeves-sock.html

You are right about bamboo splitting David, it's not like drilling wood that is for sure. It can be done though albeit very carefully.

Two days to the pour and it's started raining :-{
The Yard and Boom are finished and I've started cutting the bamboo battens to length. I've been wondering about the best method to tension up the Luff and Leech on the battens and I am experimenting with an idea. I am turning up wooden plugs for the ends. These are glued into the ends and have a section that protrudes with a hole through it for the tensioning line. I have realised through writing this that I really only need the plug section and I can drill a hole through the bamboo and the plug...so much simpler.

Arne I have 806 kgs of lead sitting in the melter, the chucks range in size from 4kgs to 115 kgs.  The 4 big chunks were chainsawed from the cast ballast of a canceled yacht build. The mold will be bone dry because I also know what it feels like, it was only a very small bit but I remember.
Gary it is a manual windlass and I can't remember the brand. It was given to me and probably dates from the 70s or 80s. I don't really need it on a boat this size but figured what the hell, use it.