Week 10 & 11 Beginning Internal Fit Out

Progress has seemed slow when looking at the boat over the last couple of weeks. This is probably because we were preparing for the internal fit out which involved first fitting the inwhales but then slowly setting up the spiling for bulk heads and then all the sole board supports. I seem to have been spiling non stop for the last two weeks but I have wanted to take a pattern of every bulkhead, every floor support and anything else fitting to the bottom of the inside of the hull. This has been broken up with various other side classes teaching paint and finishing techniques and rope and wire splicing so it has been hard keeping the build moving without lots of overtime in the evenings and weekend.
More foam had to then be prepared by sheathing with cloth and epoxy which would be used for making the sole board supports which took up a bit more time than just making them in wood. There are going to be three wood floors which will take the weight of the lead ballast keel. These have been spiled aswell and the mast steps.
We have already cut and fitted the three bulkheads inside the hull. There will be a locker bulkhead just fore of the mast and fore of this another bulkhead will create a foam filled bouyancy tank. The aft bulkhead which forms the aft deck/skippers seat will be another foam filled bouyancy tank. These two tanks will provide enough displacement for the boat to still float should the cockpit totally fill with water.
The centre board case was finally finished and the bedlogs scribed and fitted to the side of it before it was fitted to the boat. I am very pleased with it. The sole board supports will be ready to fit next week but we have decided to leave fitting the lead keel supports until it arrives with all the drill holes so that we can match them all up by locating the supports to suit. A spliling for these has been carried out for their approximate location along the hog and cut out but a final scribe and shaping of them can be made before fitting. A wood capping for the foam sole supports has to be made and fitted to them all and the two located either side of the centre board case need to be scribed to take it and the bedlogs into account. Nick has just started to fit the beam shelves for the aft deck and completed the most aft deck beam with the correct camber for the deck.
Next weeks tasks are clearly defined but finding time between boat restoration classes will be difficult.

Week 9 Stiffening & Sheathing the Inner Hull

This week was a really busy week at the academy with the boat building continueing but with the recomencement of some lectures, painting and finishing teaching and on friday block making in preparation for next weeks splicing teaching by veteran boat builder Roy Gollop. Today's block making with Roy was truly brilliant. With all this going on I worked late every night this week to keep the build moving forward.
Monday started with the build moulds being taken down which took all of about 30 minutes (slightly quicker than erecting them) and a spring clean of the working area then the boat being moved into position on it's cradle.
After we packed all the moulds away and decided on the next step of battening the sheer line we realized they had to be brought back again and some placed back into the boat to mark the sheer line which was marked on the moulds. It took us until about 8pm to get them exactly in place and plum. With all our levels checked and triple checked and qaudruple checked we marked the sheer and battened it off.
Tuesday was spent scarfing and fitting the gunnels along the sheer line.
On wednesday we made cross members to temporarily stiffen the hull then the rest of the day was spent cleaning off the inside of the hull of all the hot glue gun glue blobs, hoovering it spotlessly clean and laying out the cloth ready for sheathing with epoxy on Thursday.
On Thursady the centre board was temporarily fitted inside the boat and the slot lengthened to suit before we got ready to epoxy. I was helped by Paul and Nick along with the watchful eyes and skillfull hands of Bob and the Mike Broome who were fantastic. All went smoothly and we applied the last piece of peel ply by 3:30 and by the end we were shattered. Nick and myself worked again into the evening laminating the wood stock for the rudder.
Friday morning was spent making our wooden blocks with Roy and then to painting and finsihing again. I worked on the boat build again the rest of the day until 7:00pm making the rudder and cutting the sheer line with the fein to reveal the finished hull ready for fit out which begins next week.

Week 8 The Hull comes off the moulds.

This week was a milestone in the build with the hull being turned over off the moulds and on to a cradle for the fit out. At times I thought this was not going to happen as again everything seemed to take so much longer than expected and I was working on my own for almost 2 full days.
The first part of the week I spent doing some more work on the centre board and case and a couple of final fills and fairs on the hull along with glueing up the spruce for the boom. On Wednesday we laminated the transom and covered the boat for making the new cradle. I worked on Thursday on my own glassing up the cradle stations at 4, 12 and 18. Paul and I then worked flat out today joining and levelling the cradle. We levelled the cradle by working off the plans using a new base line drawn parallel to the lower water line, starting at station 4. We got thereby 4:00pm when we crawled under the hull to cut all the cable ties and wire and take out all the screws holding the hull to the moulds. At 5:30 we where confident every screw was removed and so we lifted the hull at the stem but there was no movement. Justin arrived over armed with a plank of wood which he lodged between the hull and the floor and as he hauled, it started to crack and creek and I began to break myself and then with a pop, off she came............perfectly in tack.....and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could not believe how light she was as 3 people lifted her off and up onto the cradle which was sitting on the bench. A trip to the Royal Standard to celebrate. Oh yes........Bob was back with us fighting fit much to the relief of all staff and students.