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.