2008 progress

Looking back through the posts for me is always a good time, when you are on the coalface every day it is hard to see how things are progressing and it always seems to be moving forward at snail's pace. That is one reason why I wanted to keep the blog, as well as being able to keep our friends overseas updated. This week has been pretty slow as we wind down to Christmas. Here in New Zealand Christmas is really the start of summer, lots of people take a few weeks off to hang out at the beach, get away from the city, swim and maybe catch a few fish. So Christmas parties are a combined wind-up of the year and the start of holidays, so lots of us go hard at party time! By the time the big day comes around there is no more shopping to do, kids are out of school for the next 6 weeks, (hopefully) the sun is out and the business suit has been hung up on the floor for a while. Yippee!

The last couple of weeks of Weta work has been tied up with mocking up the new galley layout (again) to allow us to work out the cutouts in the floor. I have made reasonably detailed sketches and made lots of measurements for the galley making company to quote on. One of the major things behind that whole planning process is the need to be able to get the completed units into the boat. This affects the way each unit is built. No good having a great galley in the cockpit...






I have finalised the location of the stove and was very happy to find the new gimballing system works! It swings sideways and has saved a lot of really useful space.

The other thing I have been playing around with is improving the cockpit coaming storage. It has always been a dark, cramped area and stuff as always disappearing. With larger access holes I will now be able to tidy up the waterproofing and give the area a decent finish. This photo shows the new holes marked out and one cut.

This shows the completed cuts. It really does make the cockpit seem a lot bigger. I have found some poorly stuck fiberglass so it will be a nice little grinding job, Tyvek suit in the middle of summer. Can't wait!

December already?

We lost a week recently as the weather turned good - too nice to work on the boat after a wet cold winter. So, not as much visible progress as one would like but you have to remain positive and keep chipping away at the coalface. The tanks and battery storage area under the galley/head floor is coming along. I made the comment to Bill recently that the first bit - cutting out the ply, goes really quick and unfortunately always make you feel it is nearly finished. However, then the real work starts, glueing, glassing and fitting the cleats for the floor.

Tonight I tested the new cockpit plan by standing the binnacle in place. I think it will be great, we have moved it back so there is room for one person aft of the wheel, which of course means that the area in front of the wheel now feels like a dancefloor!

I can sit on the aft hatch and reach the wheel, a great improvement. It will also mean that when we are standing looking forward over the top of the dodger, people can get past you to the other side of the boat.

Up front I have been plugging away, pouring heaps of epoxy into the voids that existed between the top and bottom skin. I have begun to sand the deck, it is very exciting! Did I mention I can hardly stand up?

Another week another bulkhead

We have finished preparing the area between the forward end of the engine room and the mast. This involved another unpleasant afternoon grinding back to clean fibreglass but we were a lot better prepared than last time and it went far more quickly.

Once that area was ready we glassed the keel over with chopped strand mat and vinylester resin, ready for diesel, water and holding tanks.

Then Bill cut the new bulkhead out and this has now been glassed in place. Before we could do this we needed to cut the forward ends off the engine bearers and we filled the cut-outs in the front. The engine beds will be self-contained and any spilt fluids will stay in there and not be rinsed over any other parts of the boat.

The hole for the old engine instruments has been stripped back and the new bulkhead is now attached to both the front end of the cockpit and the engine bearers. It will be a great improvement over the old bulkhead that was not attached to the deckhead.

While I have been scratching my head and working out where the new tanks will fit under the floor, Bill has been rebuilding the cockpit floor, which was extremely flexible. The 6 layers of new glass and 24mm of plywood should provide some sound insulation as well as providing somewhere to screw things on above the engine.

Stage 2

Well, how exciting! The last 2 days I have spent with my number 1 tool, a crowbar, removing the next stage of the boat. It went from this:

To this at the end of day one

To this at close of play yesterday. I found that working in jandals/flip flops/slippers around the job to be not that clever, as the ring shank boat nails stick really well in flesh and need to be pulled out. Back into my safety boots!

I have cleared back to the aft end of the engine room and our first 2 jobs will be to seal off the top of the keel with vinylesterand chopped strand mat, then we will fit the bulkhead at the forward end of the engine room. That we can fit floors with tanks under. Sounds easy!

On deck I have fitted the front two portlight covers and I am really happy how they have come up. It is completely sealed and the only way it will leak will be under the Lewmar portlight flange.