Thursday 27 November 2008

pre-painting final touches
























Jan -Jul 2008 : a period of feverish activity. We can't believe that it's over well 30 months since we started. Friends keep asking "when is the launch date?" and we've run out of excuses - Ah, you mean lunch date etc

Where has the time gone? It will be over 3 years and there's so much more to do!!

First we put the whole building frame on 8 braked heavy duty castors which made life a lot easier. At least we could push the whole boat to one side of the workshop if we needed the space - and we did. The building log seems to have been silent for some time. I blame Paul and he blames me and Anne blames both of us - and I think she's probably right. Women, I have noticed in my short life, have this tendency to be right.....

Anyway, back to the build. We completed the coaming with an oak trim and slightly modifying its shape to what we regarded as more pleasing on the eye. We added a post to the coaming on the fore deck to give a bit of strength. George, a good friend and tame engineer made a handsome brass cap to finish it off. (George also made us a number of other items such as U bolts and the cb pivot with its nylon bushes - for which we were very grateful)

We finished off the outboard well by enclosing it with a top with a cut-out to fit the plan outline of the yamaha. A test fitting proved the need for an angle grinder session (on the well, not the outboard) and soon order was restored. An oak laminated stem was made and fitted ; we would marry it up with an oak skeg keel later once the boat was turned over.

Another friend had given us some teak decking which was just enough to floor out the sole, (so much for english timber). We stood back to admire many times. There was probably more tea drinking and standing back to admire than work at times!

There was a final session of filleting and sanding and we were almost ready to start painting! I cannot believe it, we're almost there. I forgot that we still had to make the spars, oars, tiller, trailer, sort out the rigging etc. Oh, and the classic - we will have to knock a hole the end of the workshop to get the boat out! Yes, we did know this when we began.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I wish you guys would post on how you painted over epoxy for some of the doubters on my site. You've done a superb job on this boat.

Well done, all four of you. I look forward to seeing her on the water.

Best wishes

Mike
Brit Backyard Boatbuilding