22 October 2008

The lids off the paint...

The main effort over the last couple of weeks has been the settee berths. We have made these wide enough to be comfortable bunks, about 700mm. This is 80-100mm wider than the old starboard settee berth and the few times I have tested them out, they seem excellent.

Up forrard I have been Interprotecting all surfaces prior to finishing with Perfection Undercoat. It is really stinky stuff and a good vapour mask is essential. If you don't have a fan going your eyes start watering! It is starting to feel more like a boat again, in parts, rather than a demolition site.

On deck, we have glued the fiberglass flat bar into the routed part of the bulwarks and I have been sealing holes by the dozen. Next on the program is adding a layer of filler on the top edge, sand it flat, rout a radius on the corners and fiberglass tape over it all. Can't say I am looking forward to the longboard!

06 October 2008

Watertanks and chainplates

So, the last few weeks have seen the watertanks finally completed, new chainplate members glassed in and the torture of the gunwhale routing finished.




The tanks took a little longer than I had thought, but I believe the results are worth it. My measurements show we should get about 270 litres per side (I think that means about 120 Imperial gallons total, or 135 of those funny US gallons). Breathers will exit up the mast, which should work nicely. There will be another, smaller tank installed to take watermaker production, which in turn will cascade down to the main tanks when full.






The forward and cap chainplates will connect to laminated plywood which has been bonded to the hull, reaching down to the top of the tank and more or less lining up with the tank baffles. This area of the boat should be a lot more rigid than the original, especially with the new bulkheads which are close to the cap chainplates.







The forward cabin has had sealed plywood glued to both the deck and to the sides of the coachroof. We used bendy ply, especially useful for the coachroof sides where we needed to fair the roof into the sides. This has given us a surface that is able to be painted, it won't be completely fair but it will look OK we think. Time will tell.

The forward end of the coachroof was the most difficult and we had to put a few judicious slits in the ply to accommodate the multiple curves. It will require a bit more fairing but should be the worst part of the job, everything else "should" be easier.

The bulwarks under where the genoa tracks will be have been routed out and the fiberglass bar has arrived. Routing out a 20 x 25mm slot 3.5 m long was not pleasant and I blew up one Ryobi router. Still, with the price difference between that and a new Makita, I will be able to blow up another 4.5 Ryobi routers and still be ahead. We are ready to epoxy the bars in place, with LOTS of spare glue to force down the large voids in the bulwarks, where the hull and deck were supposed to be joined (but weren't).

Pretty close to epoxying up the fairlead areas, after I removed the damp and/or rotting wood. I need to look at the original method of securing the fairleads in place as it is not particularly effective. Many of the screws holding the fairleads in did not actually land in anything, which has led to water getting in.