our project

[piquet95971]

Today was a quiet day.

I hate the days that days where the heat never seems to let up.
I don't know if anyone saw the Silver Ash that was on offer on eBay? Well at 9.00 this morning I decided that it needed to find a new home wher it was going to be used. I bid on it and I won it from a member in Geelong, Cherdith. So Megan and I went for a trip down to pick it up.
34 in Melbourne and 30 with a sea breeze in Geelong.

Home in time to be able to sand down the port side of the boat in readiness for putting the final coat of varnish on the outside of the hull.
I also stuck a light under the upturned boat and had a look at my handiwork with the spray gun. Looks OK from my standpoint. Everything is coated and the finish is looking quite nice.
Tomorrow I will get the camera out and get some photos for the project rebuild dossier.
Screw the stringers inside. These were going to be done today but other things happened.

Maybe tomorrow I will get the last coat on the outside of the boat, maybe not. Depends if it's stifling hot again.

Cheers
Peter

[piquet95971]

Another hot day due for Sunday! Sick of this hot weather
Bought a new fine bristled brush for the last coat on the external planking. Gave it some linseed oil. Cleaned it with clean turps and just went for it. With the temperature starting to get up I went and put the last coat on the whole boat including boat including an extra coat on the transom.
A week of 30*+ temperatures should be just the thing to harden the varnish prior to rolling the boat right way up next Saturday.

Very happy with the surface finish on the outside of the boat. Next is matching that surface finish with the interior surfaces

[piquet95971]

This arvo I did a couple of small quiet things. I recut the threads on the copper bolts for the skeg also hit the skeg with the wire brush to remove some of the oxidation from the bronze.

I have alo lifted the boat off the cradle onto some sawhorses so that the cradle can be modified. The sawhorses aren't the strongest in the world but they will do for a temporary period. I intend to widen tha cradle so that when the boat sits on it I can prop the boat under the gunwales to stop it falling over.

Tomorrow I have some work in the morning and will get what I need to mod the cradle and do that in the afternoon ready for the rollover on the weekend.

[piquet95971]

Tomorrow, Saturday, is the big day. Rollover day.

Then the fun begins. The boat should take shape quickly from there while the bearers and the cockpit framework is installed and the deck plywood installed. Then I know it will slow down again while I work out the pattern for the strip planking for the deck.

[piquet95971]

Roll over completed with no hassles. Padded the cradle lifted it onto the coaming and just rolled it over.
Almost too easy
Bearers lifted into place. Some work to do to the underside of the skeg reinforcing to get it to sit down on the top of the ribs
So it may be a couple of days before they are bolted in securely
Centre cockpit put in place. It didn't fit. So I had to make some modifications to the as the boat was stiffer after the ribs have been fitted and it is not as flexible so it won't pull into the shape it was before the ribs were fitted. BUGGA.

Depending what the social calendar says for tomorrow I will possibly work on the cockpit framework and get it sitting nicely again. I may lose a couple of sections of the plywood deck that may not fit and will have to be remade but that's a small price for getting it right.

I thought that I was so smart getting the interior cockpit framework pre ready only to find that it didn't fit because of other things that I had done changed the original shape.

Still if that's the only thing still left to overcome then I will be delighted.

[piquet95971]

Today was a catch up day.
Catching up on the stuff up that I made by preconstructing the centre cockpit sections.
Today I had to make some packing pieces to glue between the inside top plank and the short deck beams. This took a lot of walking round the boat measuring the gap between inside cockpit sides and the inside of the gunwale and adjusting the clamps to get the gap the same all round. I seem to have got it with 1-2mm all round.

That's close enough or me. Then make the packers and install them in place recheck the gaps again. I have then checked the plywood deck sections and they seem ok. I may have to make only 2 new ones but it could have been a lot worse with a lot more things needing changing.

I also reinstalled the steering column and drum so that I could work out where the steering pulleys have to be mounted. I have kept the transom so know where those pulleys need to be mounted. The hassle was that I didn't take any photos of the original place of the pulleys behind the instrument panel.
When I get home from work tomorrow I will continue to play around. I have to plane the engine bearers so that they sit down neatly on all the ribs. There is a bit of a gap under some of them. I may have to put the boat back on the trailer to see if that changes anything. That way it has the outside of the hull fully supported.

I have worked out that something's need to be done before the deck goes on such as the steering and some of the wiring. We will see.

[piquet95971]

Tonight I took a couple of steps backwards so that I can go forward with a better end product.

The centre cockpit section and the engine bearers came back out of the boat so that some modifications could be made to them.

The bearers had to be planed to sit neater on the ribs in the bottom of the boat. That's now been done and the first coat of varnish has been applied. Tomorrow night I will place the bearers back in the boat have a look and see how they fit this time. There may be some more changes required.

There are fewer changes on the cockpit framing. Just have to touch up some of the varnish and glue into place the packing pieces.

By the time of the Maribynong cruise happens next weekend I should have the bearers fitted properly and the cockpit sections in place at least.

[piquet95971]

Tomorrow I will glue and screw the centre cockpit sections in place. Today I just installed them in place so that I could again check the alignment to ensure that they are right before they are permanently put in place.
After the centre section has a chance to dry I will then fit the steering drum in position place the steering sheaves and mounts in place, run the steering cable to get an idea of what extras may be needed to properly align the cable before I fit the deck plywood panels.

[piquet95971]

The big move today was to glue the centre cockpit framework. It took all day to do because I was trying to get the gap between the inside of the cockpit and the outside of the gunwhale the same measurement on both sides of the boat.

I managed to get it to within a couple of mm on each side. I think the maximum difference was 6mm. I very happy with this sort of difference. It will be almost unnoticeable with the strip planking on the deck.

I have also mounted the steering pulleys, steering wheel and drum and ran some 4mm braided line from the steering drum through the pulleys behind the instrument panel to get the alignment right for the position of the pulleys on the transom for the height of the rudder head. Sounds complicated but it's more fiddly than complicated. But I'm only telling the converted.

I now have to decide on a deck pattern, then machine up the timber and see if I can get the desired pattern out of the materials that I have without having to find and purchase some more.

Looking forward to meeting up tomorrow to checkout other members boats.
Cheers
Peter

[screwit]

Peter , How do you thin the varnish for spraying- turps or enamel thinners?
Ross