The Inside Painting Is Finished, So.......

It has been 10 days since the last post and much of this time has been spent waiting for paint to dry. In the down time I have been working on the trailer and trying to sort out the rigging side of things. The trailers axle and springs were quite rusty so I removed them. The axle cleaned up well with a wire brush in the angle grinder and then went through the rust converter, primer and paint process. It looks pretty good now. The springs were simply replaced because the replacements cost less than the time and materials to clean them up. I also had the drawbar on the trailer extended so that the boat doesn't hang as far over the end of the trailer (it exceeded the legal amount of overhang).

With the trailer back together I put the boat back on it for a short trip across my back yard to an open gazebo that has a substantial roof structure and enough headroom to turn the boat over in slings.

Here are a couple of photos of the boat on the trailer. You can see the overhang at the back of the boat, considerably less than it was and I plan to move the boat another 100 mm (4") forwards.

The next photo shows the boat lifted in rope slings passing through a couple of home made blocks (it would have been better, I think, to use webbing straps because the rope slings rolled along the curve of the hull and had to be restrained by tying them together).

Then turned halfway.

This is the most stable position for the boat supported in two slings, it turned to this position very quickly and then was hard to move to the upside down position. The problem was that, working by myself, I could turn the boat but then could not hold it in the upside down (unstable) position while lowering it onto a couple of sawhorses. In the end I use another 2 sets of blocks to pull down on the upper side and up on the lower side while lowering the boat onto the sawhorses. Tricky, but it's done.

Above shows the boat supported on sawhorses ready for work to begin on the bottom. Finally, a photo of the bottom which apart from dirt and few dings is in good condition. The main job is to finish the opening to the new centreboard case. The rows of holes are for the long screws that held the case in place while the epoxy set when it was installed. The woodwork where the centrecase logs come through the keel needs to be tided up. I will remove the paint around the wider section of the keel and put fibreglass cloth over the area and down into the case overlapping the cloth that is already inside the case and on the bottom of the boat.

Woodwork Done, Painting Begun.

The woodwork is essentially finished. Seat edges are all trimmed, the timbers running across the seat tops along the sides of the centreboard case are in place as is the fixed part of the centreboard case top. The rest of the case top will be screwed in place so it can be removed if/when I have to do something serious to the centreboard.

All the fillets have been done and so has a lot of sanding. In the photo below you can see that all the new timber has a coat of epoxy to seal it. The deck and coaming have been cleaned up and given a coat of undercoat. The sheer plank has its first coat of dark blue.

I won't be updating the blog as often while the painting progresses because it is hard to come up with interesting photos of paint drying!

PS, after posting the above it occured to me that a "before" photo might be interesting. Here is a photo from the start of this blog that shows the starting point. A lot has happened in the 3 weeks I have been working on the boat!

The Woodwork Is Almost Done

It has been a very sticky 2 days since the last entry. I have epoxy in my hair, on my skin and fingernails. The hair and skin isn't a problem because it wears away quickly but the fingernails seem to have to grow out and that's slow. And, before you start, I do wear latex gloves but it still seems to get on my fingers!

Two photos show that the woodwork is almost done. Here they are:

The brace at the aft end of the centreboard case is not glued in place yet. Once that is completed I intend to fit a rail either side of the case from bulkhead 2 (2 circular holes) across both seat tops to the rear of the case. I also have to close in the top of the centreboard case.

So, a bit more woodwork, some epoxy fillets to do, a lot of sanding and I can start painting.

Centrecase Fitted and Glued

Yesterday I fibreglassed the inside of the centrecase and today glued and screwed it in place. I will miss the hole in the bottom of the boat, it was handy to sweep shavings and sawdust through!

Next jobs are to put in the spine panel between the seat and the centrecase and replace some of the original seating around the centrecase.

The photo below shows a piece of scrap 75 mm diameter aluminium tube fitted in where I think it should be. The panels in the shed wall are vertical, the boat's waterline is level, what angle should the yawl rig mast slope back? It's tricky to measure the angle but I think it is about 2.5 degrees in the photo.

Forward Seat Compartment (continued)

Some progress since the last entry despite not being able to put in a full day's work. Today's interruption was a shopping expedition to buy boat building supplies, bandsaw blades, sanding sheets for various orbital sanders, etc. An apparent waste of time but it has to be done. Tomorrow will be better, no interruptions!

Here is today's photo:

What does it show:

Bulkhead 3 repaired (the front of the forward seat compartment).

The seat top is glued down, held in place with clamps and temporary screws until the glue sets.

The compartment is painted in side, 2 coats of high build water based epoxy undercoat and 2 coats of exterior grade enamel.

The mast partner (at deck level between the coamings) has a new front to support the edge. There was nothing there before, just the edge of the 6mm ply, now it has a 25mm thick laminated edging strip.

The structural work at the front of the boat is almost done. The next major job is to install the new centre board case but before that can be done I will cover the inside of the case with epoxy and fibreglass cloth. I'm not looking forward to the fibreglass job - it will be messy and I will end up wearing more than the usual amount of epoxy resin!