27 June 2009

Midwinter




Things have been pretty cold recently, I did contemplate wearing shoes one day. It has just warmed a little and the keel attracted so much condensation the water was running down it. Sanding the bottom is progressing steadily with me doing a little each week.

The rudder has been fabricated and is now ready to add the foam and glass. There has been much discussion but I hope that we have made it strong enough. I did not dismantle the old one to see how that was constructed so we did a little guesswork, erring on the more substantial side.

Interior work has been focussed on finishing touches. This shot shows the forepeak hatch surrounds and the Kauri trim, which will separate the headliner from the coachroof sides.

The galley is finally all together and is now awaiting my varnish brush to fill in the gaps.

The headliner trim in the head and above the chart table. It is pretty near straight!

08 June 2009

Torment of the longboard

I will be able to crack walnuts with my manly chest soon, longboarding the hull is a real workout. Basically sanding above my head with a meter-long length of sandpaper attached to a plywood board. As I have mentioned before we are attacking it one small section at a time. First of course, I need to grind the high spots off with the big grinder. Thank heavens for cold beer.

Finally the stainless bench tops came back from the metal workers, we glued them on with Ados F38 (High Temperature) glue, which we left to set over the weekend. There was a bit of concern because there was a little heat distortion around the edges of the sinks but thankfully the glue seemed to handle that and everything has pulled down OK. Bill is now fixing these in place, which will allow us to finish off the trim. Then I can follow on with my painting.

We made a little box to hold the engine stop/start. This is located under the companionway and can be reached from the cockpit. It should be a nice dry place, even though it is a waterproof panel. The box will also hold the switches for the nav lights, mast lights etc.

There are a few things on the go, Bill has also started on the bulkhead at the aft end of the engine room. This is the first pattern made, just sitting in place prior to being taken down and transferred to the 12mm ply.

The engine beds have also been raised to allow for the new engine. The bilge underneath has been smoothed off and re-glassed, once we have it all painted things should be nice and clean, making it easy to keep dry. I don't mind dust in the bilge!