Now we're cooking on gas.........

Literally after 18 months of cutting, grinding, cursing and finally removing various stubborn lumps of Solway Cloud, i have for the first time this week actually put something back in. Nearly keeled over (no pun intended) at the price of the materials used (work's still abit scarce at the moment) but all in all very happy with the results of the work.

My starboard keel stub is now three times as thick than before and touch wood more stronger, still on a steep learning curve though, to the point where i stopped everything on Monday to put more vents into the shed.

This in some vain attempt to get the air moving inside the canopy and so give me a few more minutes open time with the epoxy, i have a rubbish bag half full of mixing cups all with about 100ml of gone-off wests and a paint brush stuck in the middle.

After all this re-modelling was carried out i got back to tabbing in the ribs and finished off today by reinstating the keel stud holes. I have also fitted the template up to the stub to check for accuracy and will need to do some fettling to the areas around each hole.

It was observed that the studs and washers pull up at odd angles on a couple of locations and as i want a proper job done and for everything to sit down flat on the stub floor it will require a bit of filling and fairing.

cheers

Fuck it, i'm having a cup of tea!

Been having temporary sense-of-humour failure the last few days and i think its no coincidence that this is happening as i have started laminating the inside of the keel stubs, my conclusions are that if i were to come across this problem on another boat i would seek advice before jumping in, such is the steepness of the learning curve.

I have finally got the hang of it; (cutting, folding & rollering etc) but trying to consolidate cloth onto the hull when you have a sodding interior moulding in the way........oh and thirty degree heat in the cabin drove me to down tools on the first couple of lay-up's, peel ply it - then sulk in workshop.

what i have learnt about west systems is that although it will create a rock solid bond , better than polyester, in my opinion this system is a sod to lay up by hand as it takes so much effort not to mention materials to saturate 430g cloth. i say this because if you were to use a finer cloth to saturate quicker you'll just end up using more materials and take twice as long.

That said its fine on stuff like the coachroof and engine bay where these areas were easy to get too and do not have fiddly tight radii.

Where west's comes into its own is either being used in a vacuum system (where the vacuum pump would stop you getting 'white knuckle syndrome') by pulling the cloth down into the resin or indeed infusing the cloth with resin to begin with, (so you don't need to soak it in the stuff) thus saving materials (& money).

Having seen the amount of epoxy i have used this last week to repair one keel stub i was shocked considering how small an area it is .

When considering west's 'c' pack which is a 30kg drum costs £300 a pack and with another keel stub to do as well as re-laminating the hull that's quite a lot of money - that said the hull will be put in a vacuum as it is a simple shape with good access so will not use as much epoxy, hopefully.

cheers roger

Updates again.

What have i been doing? Well i've got the new rudder pretty much finished barring mounting the skeg on the hull and fitting rudder all of which i can only do once the hull has been laminated, still won't be long now seeing as i've got sod all work on at the moment.

Have also cut away all the skin fittings on the hull to make way for new ones in new places, it is customary during these jobs to curse and swear like a trooper . The reason being the complete lack of thought that went into the materials used for the environment they would be subjected to, hence lots of blackened rotten plywood beaten/ground out & very stingy scratchy face for the rest of the week. Cheers Westerly!

What else..............oh yes, i have removed the engine bearers to make way for new ones to sit my lovely new 29 horse HMI lump on.

You should know this project wasn't on the cards but because i had relied on the technical data of the engines handbook and not actually measured the bearers i found the bearers to be a good hundred mill narrower than stated. F*@K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway a couple of trips to screwfix i later i obtained my own 'volvo engine-bearer removal kit' which consisted of a reciprocating saw and plenty of blades, a ten inch angle grinder with both stone and metal discs and a shed load of discs for the small grinder to tidy up the scene of crime.