Allsorts

So where were we ?  D has been sorting out essential bit for the engine and here I confess I really should pay more attention and I promise I will however for now, here are two pictures of 'engine related stuff' which I shall pass over.



I was far more interested in the sails which have arrived. We ordered these way back from Mark Butler at James Lawrence in Brightlingsea and had an enjoyable visit and a couple of hours talking to Mark about what we wanted and they are now here. The Golant Gaffer is cutter rigged with a jib, staysail and high peaked main and I am looking forward to unfurling them for the first time and promise I will post some pictures of her sailing when we reach that point.

In the cockpit, more teak has been going on and D has been crafting locker tops

Here is one of the locker tops part finished and a shot of the cockpit in progress.


Then to the hatch, here it is laid out and stuck down. Tile spacers being used to keep the spacing even and D is getting to be a whizz with a piping bag full of epoxy mixed with graphite which he is using to 'pay' the seams.

Here is the hatch almost finished

And here it is in situ

On the rigging side, this is endless but I have been pressing on with backstays. The top part of the backstays is Dynastay with a large loop spliced in and to make it kind to the mast, the loop is covered in chromed leather and stitched in place with baseball stitch (sort of like lacing shoes). Here they are.....

The lower part of the backstays - the part with blocks is in braided rope that is particularly resistant to being spliced so I have made a seized eye and sewn and tapered the end and then served it over. In order to be able to do this, D made me a basic 'serving board' out of a piece of teak decking. It has a number of holes down it and some garden wire at the end to hold the reel of twine. This is so you don't need to occupy the ship's boy in passing the reel of twine round and round. To set it up, the twine needs to be passed through a number of holes that allows the twine to unreel but provides some resistance so that the service is tight. I found some lovely thick buff waxed whipping twine which was perfect for the job.
Below is a picture of the device and it was brilliant. I served the backstays and the mainsheet in about 20 minutes. Quick, easy and a good finish. See pics below..

Basic serving board 

Served backstay

Additionally, I have started making the strops to hold the blocks for the jib and staysail. These are made with continuous loops of dyneema with a thimble seized in and then the loop covered with chromed leather again (see below).

And then we were also thinking about the cruising chute which we will fly between the jib and staysail so this needs a small strop to sit round the bowsprit to take the tackline. Here, instead of using a block for the tackline we have used a Selden low friction eye, again seized into a continuous loop of Dyneema and leather covered (I guess you are getting the idea now). We will see how it goes.

That's all for now.

All hands on deck

The last few weeks have ben focussed on laying the deck. We decided early on that we would lay a teak deck , and, as there is always a choice about these things, the question was what style ? Fully swept, semi swept, straightlaid ? Well the answer was rather dictated for us due to the nature of the teak. We had purchased 34mm wide, 6mm deep teak decking and as you will have seen on previous photographs a Golant Gaffer is a curvy thing. As it turned out a bit too curvy for the teak we had. D had some trial runs with bending the teak (steamed and unsteamed) but it either exploded or straightened itself out. Consequently the decision was we would rather have a properly bonded straight laid deck. So the next choice was for bedding and calking and due to technical considerations, we chose to bed onto and caulk with epoxy with graphite added (to make it dark grey). The deck strips were cut to fit and spaced with 5mm tile spacers. Once bedded onto the epoxy, they were temporarily fixed down with screws and washers (screws between the planks I hasten to add and the washers applying downward pressure to the decking).  When bonded to the deck the screws were removed and the epoxy caulking applied and the screw holes injected with epoxy. The majority of the surplus epoxy was removed with a chisel and finally the deck was sanded.


 The photograph below shows the laying of the deck with the washers to apply downward pressure on the planking.

The two shots below show the aft decking laid out with tile spacers and (left) and finally caulked and sanded with the horse fitted onto small pads let into the decking.

 The shots below shows the start of sanding the foredeck and also the prism light for the forehatch and one of the portholes which arrived recently.

String theory

Just checking back I realise it was Christmas when I last wrote, my apologies but this also means that there is lots to report.

Let's start with all things rigging. Having considered for a while, we have bitten the bullet and gone for using some more modern materials in parts of the rigging but in way that should not jar too much with the traditional ethos of the boat. Consequently here is more on 5mm Dynastay which I am using for shrouds, spritstays and strops instead of stainless wire, due to its weight saving and ease of splicing. This is a twelve stranded grey material that is a bit weird to feel but if you think of it as a replacement for wire rather than as rope it doesn't seem that strange. I have been using splicing instructions from the Colligo marine website. I have spoken to a couple of riggers about using it and provided you give it a real good heave to settle the fibres after splicing and then be prepared for some more settling under tension in the first few trip, the product is more than capable of working well.

Where I think we will also benefit is that I have made up two continuous loops which I have then seized to take a Selden low friction eye at one end and left a loop at the other. This little device is then has the centre section covered with some nice chromed leather obtains from lovely James Lawrence Sailmaker. 'What are these for ?' I hear you say.... well if you slip these through the aft scupper in the toerail and pop the low friction eye through the loop then put the cruising chute sheet through the low friction eye you have a simple, lightweight 'block' arrangement that will not be bashing the varnish or paintwork to pieces in light airs... we've all been there as the lunchtime crowd of motor boaters head West down the Solent for lunch in Yarmouth at 15 knots within yards of small boats (need I say more). The added bonus of playing with rigging is that this has allowed me to indulge myself with some leatherwork..... heaven.

5mm Dynastay

Lightweight varnish friendly cruising chute 'blocks'

So, how about the boat ? Well, we are reflecting on the perversity of wood in that when you need it too be straight it will wander and when you need it to bend it will slowly straighten itself out in front of your very eyes. I recall a top rate cabinet maker telling me once that the problem with wood is that 'it wants to be a tree'.

Progress has been good, with the cold weather favouring progress on making up the rudder but in warmer times, the grab rails have been fitted as have the toe rails and rubbing strake. The Samson post is in and the stem fitting is in place along with the bowsprit band that the bowsprit goes through.

Bend on the toerail

Rudder in production

 View from astern (for non sailors)

Look at that curve...oooh lovely unless you are trying to bend wood round it

So there we have it for now, looking good but still have deck and deck fittings to do, electrics and engine to install, bowsprit, gaff and boom to build and then the painting and antifouling.......watch this space.

Rope trick

Happy Christmas to our followers. Those of you who have been following this story will know that it was Christmas day two years ago when we decided that we would commit to building our boat. That two years has been hard work but also enthralling, challenging and educational.

 When we started all this business I wondered in what way I could contribute best to the building of our boat - I am not much of a carpenter but wanted to do a bit more than choose the colour of the berth cushions (!). Consequently I decided that running and standing rigging would be my contribution (over and above the financing of the project). I am pretty handy with string but knew that this would be an interesting way of getting more familiar with the processes of fully rigging a boat. Consequently I set up a list of what I thought I would need and heck, there is a lot of it. In fact it's not often we sit back on our boats and count up all the bits you need to for rigging. OK where, to start ? Well 100m of 8mm Marlow braid for halyards and bobstay tackle. This then set me off on how to put eye splices in braided rope - well there is an excellent video on Marlow ropes site where the bloke makes it look all so easy...... Well I maybe didn't expect the first one to go easily and sure enough it didn't but I learnt from it and tried again. The result I was rather pleased with so went forth to do the next one, which I wasn't.

 The whole things appears to revolve around how much slack you can get into the outer cover in order to allow for the thinned down core and cover to get back down inside and I really have no insight into why one has worked and the next didn't - It's the same rope......The problem is that I need nearly all my 100m for the halyards and every duff splice get cut off - need to crack this asap..And I have paused in this blog to have another go and have had some reasonable success in creating a small eye splice and finishing it with some whipping. I have also been whipping the three stand mooring warps and splicing the fender lines.

Now those of you paying attention will know I left a cliff hanger in the last post whereby I eluded to rigging her in a slightly different way, well following various discussion with riggers and rope companies, we are going to have a crack at using Dynastay for the standing rigging. Dynastay is incredibly tough 12 braid hollow rope with low stretch and minimal creep. It is easily spliced and very lightweight. It has the advantage of being able to examine the fibres for wear and is easy to handle and store. Shrouds will have sailmakers thimbles spliced in and then be lashed.  Consequently Santa has bought me a load of 5mm Dynastay and a set of Selma fids (below) so I will be splicing my way into the New Year.

What about chafe ? I hear you say. That is dealt with by protecting and areas prone to wear with the outer braided jacket of a piece of braid on braid and then whipping it into place.  From what I can gather there are a few gaff rigged boats done this way - one belonging to a rigger so it can't be all bad and whilst it is not mainstream in the UK and the Dynastay is not stocked widely, we decided it was worth a go.

I will let you know how I get on when I've made some up.

 And the rest of the boat ? Well, the two layers of ply for the cabin top have gone on with the hatch runners and grab handles. the companion way is built and the surround for the forehatch. Also D has been lovingly crafting the rear posts that sit as aft stanchion posts in the rear corners of the cockpit. They are a puzzle of weird angles and are best left to D who has that kind of brain.

Also, earlier in December we had a productive trip up to the East Coast to collect the trailer and to talk to the sailmaker.

Photos below.

 Grab rails

 Companionway

Forehatch surround

 

Aft post

Cabin top

Trailer

Man power vs Horse power

Well, after much head scratching about how to get the engine in, four friends turned up last Saturday and gathered round the 10hp Nani (80kgs) to debate their approach. I left them and went to put the kettle on and by the time I returned it was done ! Consequently I don't have any pictures of the exercise. However, I am assured that it went like this. The engine was slung beneath a strong pole and lifted up into the cockpit. It was then manoeuvred into position and placed onto the bearers. All pretty simple and done in about 20 minutes - hooray for that.  The engine needs a propeller and a beautiful piece of engineering is currently sitting in its box on my kitchen floor. It is a Darglow feathering propeller and it is a joy to behold - I never thought I would be so enthusiastic about such a basic necessity however it is truly lovely. In order to check the clearances, D made a cardboard propeller (which in my book is in the same category as a chocolate teapot) but it served its purpose. Whilst the engine was going in, I took the opportunity of the cover being off to take a better shot of the boat overall. Other items are all coming in a rush now and an expensive visit to the Southampton Boat Show sees us now in possession of some fancy lighting, a twin hob (spirit stove), the radio and nav instruments and oh yes, the berth cushions have been collected and are lovely. We are also planning to collect the trailer from the East Coast and visit the sailmaker to discuss options. I am also compiling the order for the running and standing rigging. A discussion at the boat show with a bloke on the English Braids stall has made us contemplate a more modern approach to standing rigging. More on that if we go down that route - I will keep you in suspense for now. Anyway photographs as usual below.

Cardboard propeller

 

 

Real thing

 

 

 

And there is the engine

 - in situ

 

And a better view of the boat overall

 

 

Even Keel

Since the last post lots has been going on. Starting with the delivery of 630kg of lead keel which was fettled such that it had a flat top to marry up to the deadwood as it was rather wavy when it arrived. The hull was then raised on boat legs and the keel manoeuvred into place and bolted on. All was then faired (keel and deadwood) and then sheathed in epoxy and fibreglass and then primer. Then D returned to the interior and has manfully started varnishing and sanding and varnishing again. We are using a slightly satin finish varnish which is looking good. And now the foredeck is going on and the cockpit structure is being worked on. D is also working out what skin fittings will be needed. And in the middle of this we had a visit from the prospective builder of G138 which was nice. I will shortly be starting on the above deck rigging items. I am starting to compile the list of what will be needed and we have ordered the berth cushions.

Photos

Below is the keel as deliverd



Here is the keel in the process of being flattened on top
]


And here it is finished



And here is the device used to winch the keel under the hull using short pieces of scaffolding pole to roll it over. The made the job quite straightforward and better still no one got bits trapped under a large lump of lead.




Here is the keel positioned under the hull.

Here the deadwood is completed

Deadwood at the aft end of the keel

 

Here is the keel enclosed in fibreglass and with a coat of primer.




Here is the ply layer of the deck going on the bow section

 

Bye for now.

 

 

Time flies....

I have no idea where the beginning of 2016 has gone. I can only apologise to my followers for the lack of updates. It's not that I haven't been taking photos.. anyway enough of that let's get on with the interesting stuff that you come here for !

The forepeak is now fitted out and ready for varnishing, the fiddly bits of trim are going into the main saloon and D has started to bury his head in catalogs of 'boring bits' - various electricals, pumps, tanks and all the other stuff I know I ought to take more interest in but can't summon the enthusiasm for.... now give me a bit a rope..... Oh yes and a keel is allegedly on its way to us at some point. Watch this space.

A view from bow to stern shortly after turning over

A view of the galley and nav areas

The forward bulkhead and trotter boxes and the big deck beam

The aft deck supports

Cockpit side deckbeams