Adventures in NZ

Currently visiting my elder brother Rik and his family down in New Zealand well Hamilton to be more precise, they say travel broadens the mind, the jury's out based on Hamilton however yesterday was the stand out of the holiday so far as we spent the day in Auckland. 

Getting down to the viaduct i was greeted by what first appeared to be a Nimitz class aircraft carrier but later turned out to be KZ1, Michael Fay' attempt at wrestling the cup back from the Yanks in 1988.

This boat is huge! To give that context we parked on the sixth storey of the multi storey car park opposite and you could just see above the decks. It was only when standing next to keel and looking up some fifteen to twenty feet at the boats hull you realised what a beast this thing is, I could only imagine how it looks with the mast up as that was missing but impressive all the same.

After a wonder around the Team NZ headquarters and the rest of the viaduct we had a three o'clock appointment with an America's Cup boat well a match race all courtesy of brother Rik. All i can say is if you get the opportunity to do this, do it as these particular boats maybe years old but the experience was priceless. 

Once out of the viaduct and with the sails up a race course was set up and so the pre-start manoeuvres began. We did everything you see on the real race including being in touching distance of the other boat a handful of times, myself and bro volunteered for the front starboard grinder which incidentally was the most intense workout i've ever had. 

The skipper told an interesting story regarding the last British entry  in 2007 where the boat was actually slower than the boat we sailed which was built for the Japanese to contest the 1995 America's Cup, bit embarrassing as one of the crew - an English lad - Hugo explained it now resides in a hangar somewhere in Cowes.

After what seemed like no time at all our time was up, i should point out we won 2-0 even with a dodgy hoist and set of the kite but our boat excels downwind which helped coming up to the line from behind on both occasions. Of note was that whilst we (the tourists) were utilized to haul halyards and sheets via the grinders it only took a crew of four (the pro's) to sail it. I didn't get many pictures of the action as i had my head down in the pit - i couldn't do it for a living but for an afternoons fun i heartily recommend it.

Roger (Down South)

Nothing to report.

Weather's gradually improving, I opened the shed door Tuesday to find everything's covered in mould and smelling like a wet shoe not to mention the chipboard deck i laid some three or four years back is rotting around the edges where waters been blown in.

I've made a start repairing what needs doing as i hadn't realised how bad the damage was, the new tarp is on the shed and shop next door, learning from watching it tear itself apart over the past few months i've left it a little loose over the structure this time so theres more 'give' in it rather than being drum tight as it was before and then splitting in various points of contact.

I was quite amazed considering we had 90 mile an hour winds in January, it took everything that was thrown at it, so having another break in work i spotted a weather window Tuesday and Wednesday and stripped the old white outer tarp off modified a couple of things on the sheds roof and sides to cut down on chaffing and then hoisted the new tarp over the lot.

Its now an electric blue-looking silo as i bought the tarp sides right down to the ground as i was terminally board replacing polythene windows in the shed sides every few months from uv damage the only down side is you can't see your hand in front of your face inside during the day. 

I was shocked when i cracked open the first tarp and the receipt inside was dated 26th of November as that was when i started framing up the workshop thinking it'll be a couple of weeks work but then nature had other ideas and so three months on work resumes........ 

RIP BILL HICKS

A great man left us 20 years ago today........................................

Irony of ironies

Having finally heard back from someone at Google / Blogger it turns out my blog works fine in Firefox and Internet Explorer just not in my own browser; Google Chrome - back to Firefox it is then..............*Update* someone's kind of sorted it so it now sometimes works on Chrome again, amazing what a bit of swearing on an internet forum can do.

Lost in Translation........

All i did was to tweak the design of the blog very slightly, just colour and a couple of  'Gadgets' and now no longer have a working translater; its visible in 'preview' mode and template designer but for some reason its not visible in live browser mode. Apparently Blogger and Google are aware so i hope for a quick resolution but apologise in the mean time. 

Its whats on the inside.............

Had a busy Saturday measuring and photographing two different Westerly's; Richard Gunn's very tidy Mk 1 Griffon and Mike Lofthouse's immaculate C-layout Centaur which is currently up for sale. First the Griffon, having crewed a mates Mk2 in 2011 i was always impressed at the one or two movements that converted the sofa to a realistically sized double berth.

From the pictures i took the barrel of the butt hinge was visible by the bottom of the seat fiddles so i think from memory you lifted up what was the front of the seat base and it propped itself somehow to form the second berth but couldn't remember. So having put out a request in the usual places Richard Gunn, a regular contributor to the Westerly yahoo groups offered me the opportunity to look over his boat.

Like all things Westerly the arrangement was so simple yet this being a mk1 boat it was a different method to what i remember in the mk2 boat but the end result much the same. One of the things i like about the mk1 arrangement is that you pull out the settee front like a drawer so argubly you can make the double go right the way across to the galley although it doesn't on the Griffon i thought this would make an excellent idea for mine being a 'big boned' bloke.

Having got all the information i thanked Richard for his time and got back on the road. The next boat was a Centaur in Parkstone Marina Poole and would provide invaluble information relating to where Westerly placed items like the galley and sofa's and would give an idea of how the space was used.

Having met Mike who was more than generous with his time (giving me a guided tour of the impressive facilities) we wondered over to his boat 'Poacher's Lady' so i could get the principle measurements i wanted namely the seating arrangements and how they worked in relation to the coachroof sides. This is important to me as i want to create a similar arrangement to the Griffon but as the Centaur's beam is 200mm narrower i needed to check.

My first impressions were of an infinitely more sociable interior not to mention a much better use of space than the A layout infact it was hard to believe both boats are the same size. With all the measurements committed to paper and a handful of photo's i thanked Mike and pushed on happy knowing my idea was a goer. 

The evening was finished off picking up 30 sheets of used OSB off a chippy mate of mine (cheers lackey!) which will prove indispensible for cladding the roof of the workshop and the interior walls once they're insulated and all for a quid a sheet!

Now all i need is a break in the weather so i can crack on finishing the workshop which i need to do sooner rather than later as the main shed tarp is starting to fail with water coming in everywhere, although everything of value namely timber and marine ply is up off the floor and sheeted up it won't take too much looking at the tears on the outside before it ends up in a neighbours garden.

Time.

Since i seem to be wasting so much at present waiting for a paid job to start i thought i'd sort out some of my photographic archive of the big jobs i've done like drying the hull and of course the appendages.

I have arranged the work on keels, rudder and the hot vac system chronologically, although theres not much annotation as theres loads of pictures but it may help someone somewhere so its more for information purposes that i've posted these as well as whats possible if you're someone like me. At present there's still no Centaur making itself known to Dylan but i understand he still has 12 weeks to find one so if anyone knows of one that fits his specific equation (floating+dead engine=Dylans boat) then holla!

The workshop is coming on, i have all the materials to finish but i'm waiting for the wind and rain to stop as i don't fancy doing a Rod Hull, but i'm confident it should be up and running soon and then with the paid work thats steadily coming in i should have the resources to hit the ground running when its a lot less damp as at the moment everything in the shed is soaked in condensation and smells a bit earthy too.

Cheers