More updates.............................

Got bored waiting for the hull to dry so started looking for things to do, although spoilt for choice my mind turned to the rudder as the second (port) keel was nearing completion i wanted a clean sweep of all appendages for the boat to be done and ready for mounting.

so having gone into the loft to get the plug i made i was gutted to find one of the two halves of the plug water damaged; no doubt condensation.

undeterred i thought about mending the plug when over a cup of coffee i found an interesting set of pictures from dixdesign.com showing the amateur build of a mount gay 30. Among the many albums was one on building the rudder, it couldn't be more simple as it entailed sandwiching the rudder stock between two halves of ply and then shaping and sheathing.

Having wasted the best part of two weeks worth of time making the plug i couldn't believe how quick i made the new rudder and now pretty much with everything for the boat finished apart from a couple coats of west on the skeg and blade i can turn my attentions to rebuilding the hull.

Updates v 1.0

Since i last posted i've gone to version 2.0 of my heater pads since the originals i made using high performance rubber roofing material were too heavy and even with the vacuum on it couldn't support their own weight.

So as we speak version 2.0 are in build after making a prototype using substantially lighter weight material, pictures on that coming soon.

Feeling moist?

Its quite incredible, the boat's bottom has been exposed to the atmosphere for a little over three weeks and already the moisture figures have dropped considerably.

In certain areas around the boat the wetted area now reads the same as the topsides, where it still maxes out the meter is mainly around the keel stub areas and the very bottom of the hull, this is to be expected until i can get heat into the hull.

i have hot washed it once over the weekend and is in the process of drying back , interestingly lots of little dark spots no bigger than a two pence piece have started appearing randomly on the hull with water weeping from them.

i guess now its a case of continuing the drying process and observing the meter readings , i will post pictures next weekend.

cheers roger

The big strip.

Solway Cloud's bottom is no more, it was over pretty quickly by all accounts and not nearly as expensive as i thought. Shame i took so long to decide on this course of action really, mind you hindsight is 20:20.

Enjoy the pictures.

Happy New Year.

Well it has been a while (yet again) and i have done precisely sod all for the last couple months due in no small part to the weather, so bored stupid over the holidays i bought an electric compass planer in an attempt to do my own gel-strip.

The results were a bit crap to tell you the truth and although slightly dis-heartened i'm glad i exhausted all avenues before seeking professional help.

The basic problem with my boat as with alot of Westerly's of this era is the thickness of the gel coat, i was going through a pair of planer knives every dozen-or-so passes. Time was another factor as to clean a patch roughly two foot square took an entire day.......defeat wasn't far off.

Keels again........

Have spent the last couple of weeks finishing the port keel: much filling and fairing -be it at a snails pace due to the air temperatures, my attention has turned to the stubs and especially the rotten starboard one.

I started removing the gel coat the length of the stub and then around the three stud locations that are cracked i removed all the dead laminate, to get to solid, so much so that i'm almost through to the inside of the boat via the keel stub.

In some places i am almost through to the inside (4mm thick), of which the whole experience has been a bit daunting, but i've come this far, so i guess the next step is to get hold of a moisture meter and take some readings and go from there.

.........you're back in the room in 3...2...1

Its been awhile since i last posted as i have been super busy getting the hull stripped and cut back with an eye to prepping the boat for paint in the new year...oh and having to work for a living too........pain in the arse!

Anyway since i last posted all the cockpit joinery has gone; it has all been removed along with the skin from my fingertips as well (bloody sandpaper) and all the skin fittings and cleats.

I then measured the boottop line and recorded that in my note pad then set about removing it from the hull as i did with the gunwale stripe too, with 240/320 wet and dry.

Now this wouldn't be a problem if there wasn't forty years worth of paint on it, so after much cursing and successive trips to the workshop i eventually ended up getting out the big guns (namely a huge roll of 40 grit sandpaper) and used this combined with some water sprayed on the hull and paper too.

It came off a treat and the boat looks quite naked with nothing on it, so with that job ticked off its now time to get on with the keel stub repair work (after letting skin grow back onto my hands!)