One year on.....

Christmas always seems to be a time for reflection. Technically it is the first birthday of Golant Gaffer 134 in the sense that it was Christmas day last year that we sat down to work out what it would take to build a boat of our own and decided that we would. We had admired our friend's boat for a while, got to see her in more detail when we both took our boats to Holland last Summer and had pondered since our return of the possibility of building one ourselves. Events had conspired to delay our Christmas celebrations last year which left us with time on our hands on the day itself and it seemed an ideal opportunity to finally decide or let go. One year on where are we ?

Well the hull is built, sheathed and sanded. The waterline is in place (the prescribed technique is epoxying a piece of string along the waterline - nothing over technical there then ! see photo). D has been working out how best to construct the mast and we have sought a quote on the timber. We are after spar grade Douglas Fir and are thinking of using the bird's tooth construction for the mast as it is more economical on timber and should result in a strong mast that is a bit lighter and allows for wiring down the centre. Below is a diagram of a cross section of masts showing different types of bird's tooth construction. We are going for the one on the right.

We have also started the process of ordering some of the fittings. We were advised to order the fittings and then make the relevant parts to fit given slightly variable tolerances so we have. Also on the horizon is the ordering of the 650kg of lead keel. Whilst others have told us they have cast their own, we have decided to leave it to the experts and have it cast and delivered ready to go which avoids us having to heat up a bathtub of lead in the back garden.

In terms of the blog, I finally found time to work out whether I could enable followers to subscribe and I checked today and found I have two. Welcome both of you !  That's it for now. Happy Christmas everyone.



Sheathed and sanded hull

Waterline marked with string applied to the hull with epoxy. It will get tidied up when dry.

Epoxy party

The time has come to sheath the hull. Earlier this week, D coated the bare hull in a layer of epoxy and when dry, keyed it ready for applying two layers of fibreglass matting. It was our good fortune to have an offer of assistance and it was a long day for two people cutting the matting and laying it in strips down the hull and then carefully coating it with epoxy so that it was completely wetted out with no dry spots. This exercise took a good day to put two layers on one side of the hull.

Curisoity....

Well curiosity got the better of some of our sailing friends and we have had visitors this week who have come to view progress, offer helpful advice and in one case wield a moisture meter. Why's that ? you ask. We were are at the stage where the lovely cedar strip hull gets covered with fibreglass, yes I know... but that's the way it is with a Golant Gaffer. The moisture meter was very helpful and determined that whilst the cedar strip is lovely and dry, the iroko deadwood is holding a bit too much moisture so discussions with a well known yacht surveyor resulted in a plan to sheath the hull upto the deadwood, turn the hull and sheath the keel and deadwood when the iroko has dried out a bit.... well that's the plan anyway.  Oh yes and the transom has had a sealing cote of epoxy. I will add a picture when I have taken one.....

The Deadwood Stage and 'lining up air'

Yes I know you've missed us, we've been off having fun in our current boat and then catching up with all the things that needed doing because we'd been off having fun in our current boat !
 
Anyway, D has been forging on, completing the planking and commencing the deadwood. Planking went OK and the hull was then faired. At this point you have a curved hull onto  which needs to added a straight piece of deadwood. The picture below illustrates the area of part of the deadwood at the stern.

The deadwood contains the opening for the propshaft and this is cleverly formed by appropriate layers in the deadwood. Parts of this stage have involved 'lining up bits of air' as the deadwood needs to line up with things that have not been built yet. Easy on the plan but not so easy in reality. Consequently D has been building appropriate templates to add on so that all the alignments are correct. Cunning

The iroko for the deadwood was planed by a friendly local timber yard who were interested in the project and asked to look at the plans. 

I cannot pretend to understand exactly what he is doing at the moment but it all looks lovely and I wander down to the 'shed' from time to time and run my hand lovingly over the beautifully faired hull and make appreciative noises. We are starting to contemplate sheathing the hull, ordering the keel and negotiating for the engine. D has also been putting the laminate on the stem and trimming the edges off the planking at the sheer so the hull is actually properly boat shaped now.
Here are the obligatory photographs.
 
Below shows the building up of the deadwood aft and the hole for the propeller shaft tube. You will note the blue stuff attached to the right hand side of the hull - this is simply a protective sheet to stop escaping epoxy dripping onto the faired hull. Saves a lot of cleaning up !

 

The building up of deadwood at bow and stern

S

And finally for now, the lamination for the capping of the stem which covers the end of the planking,

 

And here is the completed and faired deadwood with further template of the wooden part of the keel attached and also note epoxy fillets where deadwood meets the hull.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking the plank

Well, D has been planking for the last few weeks averaging about three planks a day and having scarfed the planks required for the next day to glue overnight. Not too many problems at this stage but a lot of cleaning up of glue. As the weather has warmed up, D has needed to get some slower setting epoxy as it was rather cramping his style by setting rather quickly. Boat seem to have developed some resident spiders who are in danger of becoming permanent fixtures if the hang around with all the epoxy about.
Regulation picture below

The art of removing wood

I once read a great description of carving as the 'Art of removing wood' and indeed this is the stage we have got to. Both layers of the keelson are fixed and D has been fairing them to correct shape. This has resulted in a large pile of shavings - I look at them and try not to think of the cost of the sawdust we are generating...... With the keelson faired, the next step is the fitting of the beam shelf which is a task involving bending a recalcitrant length of wood in two different planes at the same time hence the array of clamps and rope.

  
My follower has asked for an indication of size for the boat. She is  

• Length over deck 5.71m 18’9”

• Length waterline 5.41m 17’9”

• Beam 2.13m 7’0”

• Draught 0.83m 2’9”

• Displacement 1497 kgs

• Ballast Ratio 45%

• Hull shape round bilge

• Total sail area 24.6 sq.m. 265 sq.ft.

And details can be found at http://seashellboats.co.uk/golant-gaffer/

Its looking like a boat.....

Well its nine days since the last post and we now have the stem and transom in place and the keelson being fitted. The next job is bevelling all the points where the cedar strip will meet the structure, quite complex around the stem but D is up for the 3D mental gymnastics that this will require. I am new to blogging but have now opened up the blog to comments but please keep it friendly! - thankyou.

 

Its been a busy month....

Where have we been for the last month ?..... well busy..but the boat is coming along well. Remember that pile of bulkheads ? well they're now looking a bit more seriously boat shaped...D has had fun with his laser level which was fantastic for lining up all the bits. The longitudinal bulkheads stiffen the structure up and then there's some fairing to do before we get to the cedar strip.

 

 

 

and there's a lovely laminated iroko stem.

 



Bulkheads

Bulkheads - here is a pile of bulkheads. D has now disappeared to his shed......but here is a growing pile of bulkheads that he has been busy with.

Wood arrives

Wood arrives, pile of lovely cedar and marine ply and the building frame in the boat 'shed'

Where to build it?

So, next decision, where to build it ?.... well we have now got a splendid temporary garage at the bottom of the garden

Well, decision made and the plans for Golant Gaffer 134 have arrived which makes it all rather real.