Forgot to say

I'm still working up country at the moment but should be back in the shed after next week.

Cheers.

Still in Front

Still pushing on, although didn't get the forepeak finished, its all bolted down, epoxied, bedded and tabbed to the boat, this after endlessly veneering and capping everything - man that got tedious by the third day, see i originallythought i'd have it all done in a week and yet two weeks on still not complete. 

I dry-fitted it altogether in the shop first to make sure there'd be no surprises once the epoxy was mixed and PU gooped everywhere and in fairness there wasn't. I dunno why even after all this time having tackled some reasonably big jobs like the keels and sheathing the hull i still get incredibly nervous fitting stuff even with everything laid out in front of me: tools, materials and a crib sheet - seriously!

I think in this particular case its due to the confining space of the forecabin on these boats and i'm waving sheets of ply around that are 900mm x 900mm and trying:

a) to get it through the forecabin opening without damaging the ply

b) not to get any of the adhesive on the ply until i've got it in place &

c) to forget the ticking clock that starts in my head the minute i've mixed the epoxy and squeezed three tubes of structural PU about the place.

After yet another feeling of eternity and thoroughly soaked through in sweat (nervous energy) plus 200 screws it was all over bar the wiping off of excess adhesive of all varieties.

Also to add to the tension is the fact you're stooped (5ft headroom) and because of the new arrangement a mile from where you need to be, much easier walking around all three sides in the shop but when in place its a ball ache to lean over to check joints have pulled up and wafers have stayed in place. I cured that problem with several plywood straps to hold them together then fired what seemed like box after box of wood screws into predrilled and countersunk holes.

The upshot was being too tired the next day to do anything meaningful other than clean the shop up. Still after a bit of local paid work i got the lids veneered and trimmed so they're ready to go, just need to get in the cabin to trim the veneer that will cover the top and get that bonded down. 

I'm also looking for a 2k clearcoat to do the interior with, if anyone has any ideas post in the comments section cheers, as after paying £40 a litre for the hempels to do the windows with i realise i'll go broke again based on how much interior joinery there is to coat plus i want some thing quick drying and sprayable too

I think since its internal i may well approach an old supplier from my furniture days, from memory a 20L drum of 2k semi matt was around £120, it would've gone up but it'll be cheaper than any tin with a picture of a boat on it. 

I've tacked the latest photos onto the existing album of the forecabin here

cheers.

More news

A few pics from today. 

I spent quite a bit of time this morning measuring and cutting openings in the ply, then seeing as its a three piece jigsaw made sure everything lines up as some of the openings are spilt between the panels so a little taxing but by 6 this evening had everything machined, routed, grooved and sanded ready to bond up tomorrow.

Gonna cap the openings that aren't split between the panels then once cured will cap everything else and frame up all the openings. 

News from the front.

Having worked myself out of work (going too fast for everyone else), i somehow ended up with a week off - no bad thing if i'm honest after three weeks living in the van on tinned food i think i'd reached my limit.

So what to do?, the list is long but i'd started the forepeak on my last break so commited to finishing it, this would involve opening up the moulding enough to get new structure over the top of it without excessive weight hence cutting alot of the old glass away.

I should say at this point i really wished i had done what Derek did with his Konsort and Tim Lackey over in the States does with nearly every project and that is to have gutted the entire inside of my boat, sounds drastic but so much of my time is wasted trying to figure out how to blend old to new how to attach old to new or how to get old and new looking like it should be there.

Still too late now but seeing how small the bulkhead opening is in the forepeak and the size of ply to go in there i basically stared at the problem for half a day figuring in which direction to cut the boards so as to fit in the space whilst reducing weaknesses from said joints to a minimum.

Got there eventually via a trusty correx template of the berth base, then set about the moulding with a new toy for Bicester - a cordless, brushless jigsaw which made light work of the whole affair if not a little dusty.

Still, one bonus of the job was discovering a rather large locker in the bow, from looking at earlier models than mine this was the original chain locker, this wouldn't be needed for such a purpose on mine so decided to enlarge the hatch from modest to feckin' huge. I did the same with the lockers either side of the berth so i can make framed locker lids in much the same vain as the saloon berth.

The idea in all of this is to provide access to the new water tank, and plenty of actual accessible storage via a series of hinged locker lids also by bringing the forecabin bulkhead all the way to the floor and in doing so filling in the centre part of the berth i'll create a load more space and one super massive berth.

One observation i made too today is how high the floor is in the space where the heads and hanging locker is so will have that out this week or next to take the crick out of my neck, theres at least 3" extra headroom to be had and i'm having it!

Think the worst job this week was grinding all the dead bilge paint out of the lockers and off the inside of the cain roof, had the crime-scene suit on, cans and mask and still felt sick afterwards so gave it an hour before getting back in there with the Henry hoover, but at least its a bit more progress.

One thing i did notice whilst cutting and grinding is what looks to be either a really shitty bit of laminating work or a bad repair to the the bow, dunno which to be honest, mind you there was a fair few repairs externally when i stripped the antifoul off so nothing new really.

All in Harmony.

The goodship Harmony sails again! This time with ex-crew now owner Jon Roots, he of mystery 14 knots top-speed fame, a top sailing chef and all round great bloke, take some time to check out his excellent blog, my turn to helm.

The boats based in Largs and from the looks of it Harmony's getting some miles under her keels, i've also learned Dylans bought another Centaur so just goes to show the additive nature of these cracking little boats.

Just got to get mine in the water now so in the meantime heres myself Jon and Dylan sailing this great little boat all the way from Chichester to Anstruther, the trip de-brief at the end still makes me laugh.

I would do that trip again with those two in the blink of an eye - it was such a great laugh, with Jon's wit, Dylan's endless fiddling and my snoring we made a good team...........

'Kin Jobsworth.

Well i've written and now proof-read my Encylcopedia Centauranica, might get it bound later, still after going through everything, absolutely every last job i realised a glaring omission - the water tank. 

I meant to remove it when i was in there years ago re-coring the deck but somehow forgot so without further a do i set about working out where the tank appeared to be from nothing more than the tiny gapin the bulkhead below the berth. From that i could work out where the tank was within an inch or so then drew it out on the berth top and proceeded to cut. 

Thing was, and much like the foredeck when i cut that away, after i had joined up all the cuts i presumed it would just come away - wrong! Cue some quite 'salty' language as my fingers kept getting pinched whilst trying to get a chisel into the cut grp, still i persevered and was rewarded eventually.

As it turned out that was the easy bit, as Westerly' way of fixing various items to the boats hull and not being able to figure out how was in evidence here, with all the pipework cut from the tank theoretically it should just pull out but no.

Having made the hole i originally cut wide enough to get my arms down each side of the tank i ripped it from its base, turns out and i haven't figured out how they did it, they tabbed the tank to the underside of the berth base, bizarre.

Have to admit for a tank thats forty plus years old its in great nick but peering in through the old inlet with a maglite proves my decision to replace is the right one, whats on the bottom of the tank can only be described as scaly, brown and it glints too and to think we used to drink from this!

So like the rest of the tanks i will get a smaller polyprope one, i say smaller as the space is a bit awkward but also thought that cycling the water would be better way of keeping the tank clean.   

To round off i tabbed and sheathed the bulkheads the tank fits between seeing as it had none due to the internal moulding restricting access, today i'll run some hardwood out for the new tank mounts.

To the point!

Been working up in Oxford recently. but having had three straight weeks of near continuous frustration and intransigence courtesy of the job i decided to take a little time to catch up on a few things back home as well as a few bits on the boat, or the keels to be more precise.

After posting some progress pics on Sailing Anarchy' site one of the sites forum contributors told me i might want to 'crisp' the trailing edges of the keels up, the particular contributor was only Bob Perry.

For those who dont know Bob's a yacht designer, writer and sometime grouch based in Seattle whose work is truly global having designed for many yards and private clients all over the world so i took his words seriously and started figuring out how to lose the 'drinkers nose' look to the keels edges.  

Seeing as the original trailing edge was over an inch wide i figured using some fabricated glass plate around 1/8" thick would at least help the keel slip through the water a bit better, so having figured out where the vertical centre of the keels edge is i spotted them on the old trailing edge with duct tape then when it'd kicked i then filleted with more cabosil'd wests then faired out with 410.

Been varnishing the window frames using Hempels Diamond Gloss which proved a little frustrating as its thinner than water but slowly getting there although i had to re-laminate the very first frame i made as it curiously turned yellow so that was a set back.

Other than that not alot, as i now need to sit down and start designing the systems for the inside and where everything will go plus i want to break everything down now into job sheets so as i get breaks from paid work i can pick up a 'job' in the shop and do it. So amongst other work commitments this week i'll start designing a 21st century reimagining of a Centaur.

A little late after seven years...............................................