Show's over.

Yep the boats in the skip, the sheds empty, just need to extract the gold sovereigns from the keels and they'll be gone too.

Forces beyond my control finally forced my hand plus the pandemic, (and we all know what we've got to look forward to economically over the next 3-5 years) plus the ever rising cost of materials and my ever growing apathy that's been with me the last 8/9 years all played their part.

The boat didn't go quietly, a partially severed index finger during the kill process temporarily postponed the inevitable, (saw jammed in the grp then released straight through my finger) but then got back to it a few weeks later finishing yesterday. For what its worth the hospitals around my way are all but deserted, where the media gets this 'crisis in the NHS' narrative from i dunno.

My arse didn't touch the seat in Bournemouth when i was called to be patched up then went for surgery two days later to have the tendons and and other bits reattached in Poole General, again very quiet and have physio at Christchurch which is also pretty empty, I couldn't fault the service. 

Still whilst chopping the boat up I observed the same structural problems i witnessed in 2015 sorting the fore peak that led me to pull my interior back out and remove the rest of the original interior. Another observation whilst slicing and dicing was how skinny and uneven the lay up was stem to stern; from the gunwale to waterline mine was no thicker than 6mm where as the deck was 15-18 mm solid laminate!   

There was never the same thickness of laminate from one side to the other but i guess it was all hand laid. I should point out the hardest pieces of structure to remove were mine; i now realize i went completely overkill, that front end could've taken a direct hit from an oncoming vessel and nothing would've broke.

That was the only part of the boat i pretty much through in the skip in its original form, everything else got chopped up to around 300mm x 300mm pieces to stack down in a 10 yard skip. For those contemplating doing the same a chainsaw is rubbish, a Sawzell (recip saw) with metal cutting blades works great along side a 4" grinder with a 1mm thick metal-cutting disc in. 

So what now?

Well I've been going through the parts locker, there is tons of stuff, the major piece being the engine which I've run up a few times in recent years and still only has 0.4 of an hour on it so will get the oils, filters, coolant and belts changed and get it advertised, should say if you're interested or know someone that might be then get in touch.

What else? There's..............well everything, instruments, hardware, full interior cushions (A- layout) various moulding's, mast, boom & spi pole, tanks, pumps, hoses, original interior fixtures, brand new heads, cooker etc. What i'll probably do is list everything here and on the WOA site with a guide price.

But other than that thanks for taking the time.  

Slow motion.

One thing i haven't quite got used to is how long things take to do. Sure, working on your own is one giant ball ache but coupled with waiting for epoxy to 'kick' so you can get on spraying then fitting things is just doing my head in. 

So even though i have my new super ace epoxy i'm going to give their 'rapid repair' product a go as it promises to cure in 1 -2 hours. I could of course get on doing other bits in the saloon which I have but as mentioned before there's an order in which everything goes together in this project so I'm a bit hamstrung in some jobs.

Still we'll see later on this week when 10kg of the 'rapid' variety should be delivered. I think its the lack of interest in doing the work if I'm honest and having to hang around waiting for stuff to go off that's killing me at the moment, just got to get the boat done. The port side of the galley is in the paint shop getting sprayed so i can still building up the port side settee.

Saloon (Part Deux)

Its still 3D chess in the saloon but i'm used to it now, installing components in such a way so as not to fuck up the next bit. Yesterday was spent bending the galley bulkhead to my will, bit of a self-inflicted wound as i only spray finished one side and consequently it turned into a 4ft square fortune cookie. Never mind, half a dozen f-clamps, some swearing and strategically placed hardwood wedges later as well as three tubes of Puraflex 40 got it all under control.

Gonna go for the settee berth next to port and get that buttoned up and in then i'll proceed to the starboard side, think cookers, cutting back the utility room foam bulkhead and making that a length-wise sea berth. 

It'll get the same treatment as the port side, pull out and storage then i can get back up front into the heads and finish that. Definitely a way to doing this though. Paid works almost back to normal that of up and down so no change for me personally but all good as the money is starting to trickle in again.

The saloon (part one).

I ummed and arghhed for a while deciding how to lay it out but eventually settled on the revised idea of sink & icebox to the left of the saloon door and oven plus a small drawer unit to the right. This is the most versatile layout i can come up with so you still have to sea-berths down either side and then with some rather spiffy joinery on my part pull the respective bunk fronts out and infill with the respective back rests and have a giant double, 8.5ft x 5ft.

This way, if your intimately acquainted with one another you can go for the giant double option and if not you can sleep separately along the boats length on either side. I will admit to wasting half a day with the laser and measuring tape working it all out and then quietening the voices of doubt in my head. 

The only slight disappointment was building out the sink and icebox side as the icebox to the hulls shape, once insulated is now tiddly but i have an idea to commandeer part of the port side cockpit locker by framing it up and insulating to make an aux store (see booze locker). With the next bit of free time i'll start building out the starboard side. Cheers.

Well that's that.

So as paid works not starting until mid June i may as well get on with building out the Heads and Hanging locker. Got the bulkheads finally finished how i wanted them & given more protection than a member of the Royal family.

Still they're in after two long days on the roller and hot air gun so its onto cutting and making the floor. I think i'll go the route i did before by encapsulating 2 part foam then sealing with epoxy & boarding over with coated plywood.

I'm liking the fact i have standing headroom with about 70mm above my head in the main saloon so will be able to insulate and put a proper headliner panel in with room to spare. I got the compression post bolted in so that's a weight off my mind as the sapele post had a 6mm curve to it when the metal post was placed up against it. 

For sure the compressive strength parallel to grain is some 8500 PSI so around 4 tons & with a post who's cross sectional area of 9 square inches that's a lot of load bearing. But with the new larger sail plan and no backstay i don't want any drama on the water plus the water tank is half the capacity of the old one so i could spare a little weight up front.

What else? The new epoxy from Easy Composites worked very well although it doesn't like heated rollers. Basically when i heat the area with a hot air gun to aid saturation the roller using Reactives epoxy would stay live for the duration of the lay up as long as you kept wetting it in fresh resin. 

The only fly in the ointment with the new stuff is it sets like a rock on the roller after 30 odd minutes but given the cost saving over Wests i can let that go, it even smells the same as Reactive's resin and wets out a treat so that's a thumbs up from me.

A bit of a slog.............

I called it 3D chess on Sailing anarchy as that's the best way to describe rebuilding a boat with the deck on. If i cut and fix that bulkhead it restricts access forward and if i don't do that i can't make up the panels to create the heads and hanging locker but before i do any of this i have to get the comp post in place, bonded & bolted else i have no means of getting that fastened.

You can see why so many boat projects end up on ebay, not just because of the time and money endlessly poured in but the sheer head fuckery they create when trying to work out a process in which to complete the work. 

Granted i'm an 'overthinker' but the amount of traps i uncovered this week was truly biblical, that said i'm still heading in the right direction but all those memories of a few years ago came flooding back the last couple of days.

It must've been all the time that'd passed since i last worked on the boat had somehow blocked the anguish, "c'mon, its only fucking boat?" would go one voice in my head, & "you've done way more difficult things than this" would be another, slightly more upbeat assessment to keep the mental wheels turning. But still somehow i get the equivalent of writers block with this project to the point where i'm genuinely lost.

The plan in the old days (if you could call it a plan) was to start at one end and finish at the other, bit like construction, once the shell's up and roof's on, internals-wise you'd start on the top floor at the furthest point and head towards the stairwell at the end of the corridor. The theory being little to no damage as you were all working your way out of the building. Although - trust me - i've worked for some proper twats over the years who start in the entrance lobby on the ground floor and drag all the labour, materials & plant through the building. 

So when i got back onboard with the Centaur it was 'go to the forepeak and work your way back to the companionway' except there's a myriad of interdependent variables on the way through. I'm on top of it now but it took an excel spreadsheet, (i know, i'm a total spreadsheet wanker in these moments) to clarify the uncontrolled panic. 

I think it was this and the paint problems i've had this week with the bulkheads that provoked a sit down-and-type-it-out moment. The automotive paint feels greasy to the touch no matter how much post curing you do so have begged my furniture paint supplier to give me a C.O.D account which means i get the paint with little to no discount. 

That said at least i know the gun settings and finish will be perfect plus I can spray the stuff blindfolded and still get a perfect job, that should be here Tuesday with a following breeze. Just what i wanted though, £200 quids worth of automotive paint languishing in the cupboard whilst i spend another £200 quid on the paint i wanted in the first place............................

A little slower than expected.

But given the fact i'm getting any materials delivered during lock down is something of an accomplishment, just a little frustrating when you actually have the motivation but are forced to wait. Still it all turned up Friday so got to work fitting reinforcement rings to my bulkheads and then got to cap them in solid Oak.

After today the fore cabin bulkhead shall be ready for paint and final fitting then just need to fettle the right hand saloon bulkhead and that too is ready for the same. One thing that took a lot of time - and hats off to Jack (Laurent Giles) for figuring out how back in the day - was floor heights, i know, niche right?

I must've spent a good day Thursday pondering not just floor but also door heights as the heads door can also close off the saloon all in a progressively diminishing space horizontally-speaking. I got there in the end, not helped by losing an old work diary from 2015 with all the fore cabin measurements i took before ripping everything out. Kinda made the job just that little bit more fiddly although the laser took the edge off - its a god-send for this work.

So by the end of this coming week i will have the saloon and fore cabin bulkheads in and finished then to join them both up, fore/aft-wise to make the heads to port and hanging space to starboard by way of two more bulkheads then that's the major structure put back in the front.