Success!

After finishing the pads on the inside of the coach roof it was time to cut in the gas locker so after waiting a couple of minutes for the brave pills to kick in i measured then measured again and just to be sure had one more look then went for it with the air saw.

These are great tools - no vibration relatively light too so all you have to worry about is holding the tool on the line, this enabled me to cut a perfectly accurate shape. I decided to start off small so did the gas locker on Friday which went successfully although i couldn't get over the thickness of the lay up in the cockpit (12 - 14 mm).

On Saturday i framed it up with marine ply creating the drainage detail and sides which will take the hinge and ram. It feels a bit hairy as the grain is raised from me drowning everything in resin but i'm pleased with the initial result so will start filling/fairing later in the week.

Monday came and buoyed with the success of the gas locker i decided to retire the brown trousers and red tunic such was my confidence and began marking out the big locker on the starboard side.

I'm pleased to report it went without a hitch and i now have the beginnings of two decent looking lockers. The point of this was to create storage and obviously to adhere to gas regulations but above all i hate those bloody sit-on mouldings that westerly made and fitted from the late seventies onwards.

They leak they don't look great imo and they're uncomfortable to sit on, the early boats (laurent giles era) had proper moulded-in lockers so i guess the accountants had a say in the making of the newer ones shame really.

That's that bit done.....................

Got the last reinforcement that i can do done as irish as that sounds i have two more on the forward part of the coach roof to take the organisers but until i know where a couple of other pieces of hardware are going to go i can't place them yet.

I have got through all of the 25kgs of polyester with about an 1" left in the bottom, decided i'm going to take my brave pills tomorrow and start on the cockpit lockers. I say brave pills as this involves alot of cutting in the cockpit and in such a way that if done wrong will take a lot to put right.

So will spend a large part of Thursday drawing lines all over the cockpit and checking where existing bulkheads are, i was going to jump onto the hatches and companionway hatch but since i'm still waiting for the two hatches for the saloon i will concentrate/do battle with the cockpit area once more and just when i thought the aft locker was a memory too.

I'll post some piccy's of the reinforcing work end of the week.

Still kicking ass and taking names.

Yes as the yanks would say its still full steam ahead in the shed and what with the epiphany i've had this week about using polyester resin its all going swimmingly.

Since the start of the project i've been using west's epoxy but what with money being thin and the need to get on with work i have decided to use polyester for internal/non-structural work and leave the epoxy for external/structural stuff - its saving a small fortune.

This past week i have got all the deck reinforcements bonded into place and have started tabbing them to the hull, the only fly in the ointment is the styrene fumes - in a confined space its postively awful even with a full respirator & eye protection but at one sixth the price of epoxy i will be using this stuff alot more.

Next week after i've finished the inside of the deck my attentions turn to the outside of the deck. That entails cutting away the old box hatch surround and to get the new ones made primed and dry-fitted to the deck along with continuing the filling and fairing i'm on course to get the deck finished in the next couple of weeks.