I was rudderless

But now I'm not! Bill has been beavering away with foam, glass and a planer to finish the rudder. My last post showed the start of the process, with a couple of small infill pieces in place. Once the whole thing was filled and glued in place, he glassed over the flat sheets, using extra tape over the stainless web.

Then, on went a few more layers of foam to build the thickness to the required width.

Once it was in the ballpark he started fairing it to the correct dimensions, which means we had to offer it up a couple of times to add a bit here and take off a bit there.

When it was the correct fit he glassed over the whole thing again, adding extra layers on the trailing edge and around the clamp. A big layer of bog over everything and he is ready to do the final fairing tomorrow.

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!