stubs away!!!!!!

Got cracking after heating the shed up for an hour. Having all the cloth cut to size proved a real help as it was great picking up each piece and placing it on the hull. The only downside in todays proceedings was losing a whole cups worth of epoxy (600ml) bollocks!!!

It seems i'd done such a good job preheating the shed that it was nearly 30 degrees c so knocked off the heater and got down to business, six hours had passed by the time i got to washing all the tools in acetone. My back neck and shoulders were killing me, i had everything done including peel plying the lot I even had the bag and breather cloth ready to go but after three attempts at trying to get the breather material to attach to the hull i gave up. I was so knackered i could barely get my arms above my head so have had to make do with it being squeegeed & roller-ed to death.

If i have enough strength when i do the starboard side i may go for the bag although i may look at attaching the breather material to the bag so all i got to do is stick the bag on the hull which is easy enough.

I have all the spreader washers cut and shaped for each location, all out of 10mm 316L stainless as i needed to make up the stub floor thickness so this was cheaper than epoxy speaking of which is worrying me how much more i'll need based on what i used on the stub. I calculated i've used around 4 litres which at the prices i pay with delivery and tax works out at £56 to do.

That'd buy me 25 litres of poly but i guess it wouldn't give me the protection though, oh well guess i'll have to keep doing the lottery.

cheers

....and start again

Well in all honesty there was nothing to do so i may as well crack on. The financial windfall didn't materialise but the more clement weather did so i revisited an old hobby of mine - that being displacing vertebrae in my spine dragging 600-odd kilos of pig iron around the driveway.

This time cracks had started to appear in the tops of both of them, you may remember when the first keel i rebuilt started to come apart well now both have got the pox. The first keel has now parted company with its top from the middle all the way aft so will have that in as soon as i have the other mounted.

In the meantime i got to work cutting paper patterns with which i could transfer to bi-axial cloth and then epoxy on, i've been doing the same with the wetted ares of the hull for a while and although a largely time-consuming process it makes fitting so much easier when everything is made-to-measure.

Now the first keel is completely sheathed three times over i (rather controversially) am going to tape the keel to hull joint when i have attached the keels as i want a completely sealed joint.

More pictures of the stub to follow

cheers

....................and stop.

Once again another year is at an end and i am a little further down the track but nowhere as far as i wanted to be, i've taken all the resins out of the boat shed and stored them indoors as the temperatures are falling.

I'm hoping to continue work as the weather is mild but i am disappointed i have only got as far as i have but i will just keep plugging away at it and hope for warm weather early oh yes and some financial windfall.

Have started on the external areas around the keel stubs, spent the morning drilling the holes back out so i can laminate then drill them through from the inside afterwards, i've observed that the inside of the keel stub floor is not as flat as i wanted - just thinking of the load being spread evenly across when 'dogged' up tight.

Still must get on and wash the hull down for what must be the thousandth time.


cheers

rog

I've been reading......

Alot about motivation and what makes us do things for their own sake. Seeing as the well keeps running dry lately modern theories propose the concept of visualisation - you know closing your eyes and imaging the finished article which i do a lot of but its just the feeling of a lack of progress that depresses the most at the moment.

Still i'm at the stage of hitting the deck moulding with 404 and then rubbing back, i've been doing this for nearly 3 weeks continuously as well as making a composite fuel tank and a bow roller.

I'm still aiming for keels and rudder on and at least primed by years end as the air is too cold and damp i feel to topcoat but never say never.

I will post some pictures seeing as i haven't for a while but in all honesty not a lot looks different, oh yes I've cut out and bonded up frames to make the locations in the cockpit for instrument panels, gauges and tidies so moving forward a little bit at a time.

cheers

roger

Well..............

The windows turned out a tad disappointing so have re-thought what i need to do, it doesn't help using marine ply that splinters when you so much as look at it and a rebate cutter that's absolutely screwed when you're not even half way round the first window frame and there's another three more to do.

The idea is sound its just tools and materials have let down a better execution, anyway i have bonded everything onto the coach roof - hatch bases, winch bases, organiser pads clutch pads etc - actually looking quite cluttered on there if not a little more modern.

i can't explain it - the centaur was conceived in the late sixties but adding these components sympathetically seems to have bought a new coherence to the design - really pleased how its turning out, i just want to see what it looks like with a coat of white.

Had a major disaster on my hands on Tuesday when the tarpaulin on the boat shed roof decided it had had enough of being there and blew itself to shreds.

Not so bad you might think and indeed a perfectly salvageable situation but last winter i insulated the roof with fibreglass (Rockwool) so as you can imagine the back garden was 'snowing' for a while until i could get something temporary on top.

Got the tarp on and fitted Wednesday although trying to dismantle the temporary tarps and gingerly remove the shredded original took some perseverance especially in the driving rain anyway the shed is now sporting new colours blue and white with blacked out vents. I made new ones as the water coming through the thread-bare originals is slowly weakening the chipboard floor.

Not much has been done since as a flurry......well i say flurry , i mean a weeks worth of paid work has come in so not much has got done but if it keeps me and the whole project solvent its worth doing.

Cheers roger

Its becoming a monthly habit - this..........................

Well the rubbing strake's look like new now as i spent a couple of days on them around the start of August pulling all the rotten grain plugs out and replacing with new. The scarf joint on the starboard side got epoxied and clamped so another job ticked off.

What else...........oh yes started work on the hatch surrounds as i finally got the last two hatches delivered, as we speak they have three coats of wests, just a couple more to go and they're ready to be bonded to the deck.

From this i got the idea to make some new window frames in wood, have routed them out from templates i made from the old ones, tomorrow i will sheath them in 200g cloth and see what they look like.

If good i will fit if not well back to the drawing board then next week start bonding everything to the deck .

cheers

rog

A clear head..........

Having been away from the boat for a couple of weeks for various reasons i think a little distance helps bring things into perspective. It was enjoyable rather than anxious walking around my boat; something i hadn't done for a while.

I had a delivery of parts whilst i've away which i duely opened this morning and got excited about as well as another delivery from the excellent folks at east coast fibreglass, quite ironic as i had ordered amongst other things, fire/solvent resistant resin which i would have had a day earlier had the delivery van not caught fire!

Still having had some distance between myself and the project i have re-focussed and will be back to it soon enough.