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!

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!

Little things

... and lots of them!  In the last couple of weeks we have completed the chart table, added the first bulkhead in the aft cabin, created an instrument box for the engine panel, done the final preparation of the engine bay, and probably more that I can't think of right now.

Bill has started the hull fairing process.  It is going to be a long and painful job.  I need to find a fit young thing who is happy to longboard above his head, for next to nothing.  Is anyone that desperate for work?

The engine bay has been an interesting exercise in working out how the boat was constructed.  What we have found is that there was a ply dam built about halfway along the engine beds, extending down into the keel.  Once the cast metal keel was lowered into the keel, fine concrete was poured around and on top of thekeel.  The lifting rings for the metal keel were cut off (badly) and the void aft of the keel was then filled with polyester bog.  Bill's guess is that they used talc as filler.  Unfortunately the top of that was never covered by a protective fiberglass covering so over time, water soaked down the sides (and through) the polyester bog.  After sitting out of the water and being kept dry for a year, this bog is still damp if you chisel it out as we have been doing.

The first aft cabin bulkhead!  I know, its only a little one, but it is something else to celebrate with a cold beer.  Sometimes you need to look for things to be excited about....

A month?

I can't believe it is a month since I posted - time flies when you are having fun I guess. Colin and Nichola on Emerald will be feeling good, having posted more than me!  This picture shows the varnished galley, with the fridge fitted (its the black bit).  It is a Waeco 30l compressor fridge drawer, the compressor can be moved off the back of the unit and we have mounted that away from the fridge compartment.

Having had a dose of the flu, just when the swine flu was breaking, was less than exciting, I lost about a week of work.  Bill made me wear a mask all the time - which he had decorated as a pig's snout.  While I was flopping around wishing I was somewhere tropical, he was making progress on a few time consuming but worthwhile jobs.  This shot shows the chart table, tucked into the corner between the head and the bulkhead on the forward side of the engine room.  It should work well, lots of space to throw junk!

I cut the 108mm hole for the rudder bearing and have had the rudder stock machined.  We left it in one long piece so we could align the top bearings with the shoe on the skeg.  One cold morning last week we had a panic when I couldn't get the stock to turn after I bolted on the shoe.  We found that the skeg had bent quite a few mm as there was lovely warm sun on one side, while the other side was frosty cool.  Once I hung a cover up and allowed the hot side to cool off, all was well.

So the rudder shaft is now in place, our stainless wizard Sam will turn up next week possibly and we will tack the frame of the rudder in place.  Hopefully nexct blog we will see a rudder hanging off the boat!

Bill has also fitted the door surrounds to the head and the forward cabin.  I am trying to follow up with varnish and paint in the weekends, with a little success.