Nearly there!

I will be finished with the painting in the walkway and aft cabin tomorrow, at long last. It has taken me longer than I expected, basically the job was bigger than I thought, with a lot more surface area than was apparent. That will be good though, it will really be a shot in the arm to see the last light fittings, switches and plugs in place. Next will be getting some guys in to fit the hull liner into the forward cabin, saloon and aft cabin. Bill has been doing a few smaller jobs, one of which was adding 10mm fibreglass plates to the chainplates. This will hopefully keep them up out of the scuppers a bit. My plan is to make stainless plates to fit over the top of the chainplates, making a secure sealant-filled gasket.

On top of the cockpit coamings we have added a lump of teak which will hold the lower end of the dodger. The thinking here is that water should be kept out of the "watchkeeping" seats at the forward end of the cockpit. Hopefully one day we should be able to actually put that to the test!

The nav station is complete - not wired up yet though! I haven't bought the Fusion marine stereo yet, as you can see by the hole. I had purchased a CD player and stacker when I was in Hawaii but I think MP3 technology has really taken over from CDs and this will save a truckload of space. I will put a remote stereo control in the cockpit, the unit also deals with the different requirements in saloon and cockpit, without having to use the Fade controls.

Bill has just started on the rudder and I want to take photos of each stage of the process. I built the stands to allow him to work on the rudder easily, his first step is to fill the internal holes and create the overall shape using 12mm higher density Divinycell. Then that will get a pretty serious layer of glass, and then the outside layer of foam and glass to produce the finished product.

Life in a paper suit

Hopefully I have now lifted the engine for the final time! I am sure I said that last time, however that was before we realised I had used the wrong coating in a few areas. Unfortunately on one of my shopping expeditions I had picked up brushable gelcoat instead of Flocoat, without realising. Bill found the problem when he went to use a bit and actually checked the tin! At least now I have a reason why some of my work was not looking as shiny as it should do - the gelcoat is not designed to be a surface coat and remains porous and soft. It is designed to be the first coating over a mould and normally would be over-coated with polyester. Live and learn!

I have been trying to get the aft cabin ready for painting, it is a very unpleasant job and one I need to keep kicking myself to achieve. However, today should be the day so with a bit of luck I should get some paint on this week and the aft cabin will be finished! The weather recently has been cold and wet, not very conducive to sanding or painting. Yesterday afternoon the sun actually appeared so I raced around and slopped a bit of Interprotect over the foredeck. It is interesting to see the difference it makes after the sanded and patchy look of the last 18 months or so.

The cockpit coaming is all done, this picture is a couple of weeks old. Bill has now sanded all the bits smooth and added some teak to the tops of the cockpit side. That will allow us to attach the dodger clips and will hopefully prevent water from running into the wet-weather watchkeeping position. I will get some photos of that at some stage. Bill has also cut the holes for the instruments, speakers and switch panel, we are happy to confirm we can get our hands in behind these to tighten fasteners!

Midwinter

I have been busy completing the plumbing for the head area, which is now only waiting on the fresh water line to the vanity sink and the breather for the holding tank. There isn't much to see however for a lot of contortion work...

I have been trying my best to keep everything as tidy as possible but I am not completely happy - I wish pipes bent 90 degrees more easily!

Bill was doing his own stuff for a while, but has added the plinth for the binnacle. That is foam and glass, glued to the cockpit floor. I still need to get the binnacle painted but I am considering powder coating it, I need to check that it won't blow the epoxy bog off the aluminium when they heat the powder.

Looking a little like a Star Wars fighter, the forward cockpit coaming is coming together and should be finished soon. Bill has cut out the speaker holes and added a wiring conduit so we are ready to go!

And then?

There's a movie where one of the characters just keeps saying "and then?" until chaos ensues. Just how I feel! Progress appears incredibly slow currently as we do a host of little jobs. Geoff the sparky has almost finished this phase, he will need to return once the painting is finished and we have laid the lining on the exposed parts of the hull. I am painting the aft cabin but the weather has been cold and damp lately so that has been slow. Today looks good so I'm into it in a moment!

Bill is rocking on with the forward cockpit coaming. It looks high until you put the instruments in place above the hatch, which then brings everything into perspective. Construction is quite simple but I am glad he is doing it, there are a few tricks of the trade he brings along which make it look easy.

The foam is glassed inside and out, he is doing that in the garage before the final attachment onto the boat. We will be making the hatch turtle strong enough to jump on, so there will be a bit of trial and error there. Elsewhere in the boat I have mounted the cabin lights, 12 V sockets, switches and some of the fans. Parts of the boat look finished - if you hold your head right and concentrate...