Prep to move out of the shed and name/rego added

I still had a few things to finish while the boat was on a secure concrete footing to allow for winching it out of the shed.

First off was the boat cradle.  Many moons ago we had to cut the building cradle cross pieces to slide in the lead keel. Since that time I have had long pieces of wood screwed and clamped together to hold the two halves in place. 

Below is November 13 (wow, time flies) showing the building cradle:




And April 15 with the keel in place, the wood to the left once went all the way through forward and aft.




To reattach the two we had to again get the jacks and blocking out, and raise the entire boat front and rear until we could slide in pieces to cover the gaps across.  We used the same dimension structural timber, longer than the gap with extra wood each side of the cut to continue underneath the upright supports.  These were then bolted through with two or three 10mm galvanised bolts each side, with extra hardwood bolted on the other side in the gap to strengthen against flex.  We also had to remove the upright supports against the chine of the hull as these were outside the width and wouldn't fit through the shed door.

We then jacked the whole thing up higher again, and put hardwood pieces 75mm square (the last of the kwila keel timbers cut in half) parallel to the keel and just outside.  I have another piece to put directly under the keel, but it is not in place yet which will be covered shortly.

This is a shot from front on, showing how I had to limit the width to get out the door.  The two hardwood slides are under the inner most upright support each side, the final one will be directly under the keel.  I have added straps from the chainplates to the support to reduce movement side to side but seems as secure as it has always been.

With the extra height I could then epoxy over the final rear keel bolts with sanding filling powder mixed in.  Previously these were too close to the floor to get at, and once set they were sanded to match the keel. 

The final prep is to paint the underside of the lead and the rear hardwood sections of the keel which I could not get to.  So far I have done two coats with International Interprotect epoxy sealer/primer but need to get some more.  Below is looking aft from the rear of the lead keel towards the rudder:

For sometime I have been getting asked what the boat name will be.  A bloke I know who is doing up a runabout let me know that the Queensland Department of Transport now allows you to pick your boat registration number, and you can reserve one free of charge for six months before launch.  A quick check revealed the boat rego I wanted was free.  Down I went to sit around for 45minutes waiting and it was mine!  The boat will be Welsford Sundowner sail number 18, so the boat registration number will be SUN18Q.

Now the name.  

During construction on a number of occasions one term kept cropping up.  Be it when I told people I was going to build a boat in the shed, the size of the keel we melted, the thickness of the rudder pintles or just in general conversation.

'Overkill'.  eg "how big is it going to be?  That's a bit of overkill don't you think".  Dictionary.com had a definition that also struck a chord as well.

overkill [oh-ver-kil]

noun

- the capacity of a nation to destroy, by nuclear weapons, more of an enemy than would be necessary for a military victory.
- an instance of such destruction.
- an excess of what is required or suitable, as because of zeal or misjudgment.


Sounded like me.  It is also the title of one of my favourite 'Men at Work' songs.

So that was the name sorted.

I started looking at boat names and rego stickers.  After looking around I bought some from Boat Names Australia (www.boatnames.com.au) and they were sent out in the post.  A couple of viewings of the youtube videos on how to stick them on and away I went.  I have no connection to them, but they were a good price, had an online design tool you could use to check fonts, were prompt and looked like I could apply them.

Process was easy: clean the hull with metho, position the name, peel off half the backing, spray soapy water on and attach using a provided tool to press on, do the other half and leave it.  Come back in half an hour and wet down with water, leave for 30 seconds then carefully peel of the front cover. Below shows the registration number and home port ready to be fixed on the port side of the transom:

And the name on the starboard side:

The transom is too close to the back of the shed to line up the camera so the photo is not level, but I used one to line up the names etc so they should be.

After looking across the transom:

And again the photo looking straight at the transom is not level, but you get the idea:

I will continue to paint the underside of the keel, then it is time to drag the boat out of the shed to mount the mast tabernacle (would make it too high to get out of the shed if done inside) and organise the engine mounting and truck.


Mal

Quarterly Update - Chain plates done, internal cushions and anchor roller mount

House renovations continue to compete with the important part of life in the shed, along with totally destroying the boat fund but I continue on.

Last instalment I was working on the chain plates and positioning them.  I had just finished cutting them out.  Below shows the kwila external ones notched for the chain plates and the internal ones which are two layers of 12mm hardwood glued together.  On the left bottom you can see the 6mm stainless steel backing plate for the inside.

Once they were all shaped I marked them with a chisel and painted them all with sealer undercoat and then a couple of coats of exterior paint.  Below is the grey sealer undercoat (two coats).

These are the tools I used to drill the holes for the chain plates (mostly successfully).  I started with a smaller drill using squares and level to attempt to get them straight.  I drilled the top forward and very bottom holes of a chain plate first, as deep as the drill bit would go followed by a smaller hole with the brace and bit.  Once I cut through inside I could drill (it was only a small distance at the top and bottom where it hit inside stingers) and position temporary threaded rod.

Once the top and bottom threaded rod were in I could position the external chain plate and the internal backing plate.  Then the procedure was the same, with the small electric drill bit and brace and bit hole allowing me to see where I was going.  If I was off, it was easier to adjust my drill angle from outside when I went to the final hole size to hit the backing plate.

Below shows the port side middle chain  plate, which is the galley inside, with temporary threaded rod.

And from the inside.  The top bolt (forward side), goes through the gunwale stringer and the bottom bolt through a lower stringer, the others just the hull.  The hardwood backing plate goes against the ply hull and packs out the gap so it can be bolted in place.  The aft top hole on the middle chain plate each side got a stainless coach screw.  All others are total through bolts.

Below shows the holes you end up with in the hardwood backing plate and the hull/rubbing strakes.

Once I had drilled all the holes I measured and ordered all the bolts in stainless steel, bought some more tubes of sika marine sealant and called on my father.  Together we liberally spread sika between the hull and the backing plates and into each hole, and bolted down the plates.  I chose not to sika the inside, if I see water that means I need to give them attention rather than have water between the outside and inside sitting.

Below shows the final view of the port side chain plates.





I have also finished painting the engine box which is below.  At the front is a slide in cover which may have an air vent (to be determined) and a slide on top which will form my table and also the step to get up into the cockpit from the cabin.  The entire thing attaches to the engine bay with a few screws and can be totally slid off into the cabin space towards the galley for all round engine access for servicing.

Another exciting task was cutting the foam for the berth cushions/seats.  Below shows the complex angles with the curve of the hull to the left, the top surface fitting around a frame and then joining another.  This was before I painted the ply seat tops, from memory the foam is 150mm thick.

Below shows the port side forward one closest to the galley.  The fridge wiring runs to here as well, so I may make another smaller one which can be swapped in.

Below is a view looking forward in the forward cabin.

And a shot looking aft.  The main mattress is split to match the swing up supports underneath.

Below are all the finished cut foam pieces before I sent them off to the seamstress (my mother) for covering.  She has threatened me with bodily injury if I ever ask her to do anything similar again.  The angles, cut outs and curves were a nightmare.

A bloke I work with who helped me connect up the 12v wiring also does a bit of 3D printing so made up a mount for two gauges for the house battery/current draw and cranking battery.  I had to cut the top name plate part off to fit it where I wanted, but mounting is underway to allow me to monitor the power.

My final project has been an anchor mount.  I have purchased a mount and a 16kg anchor, but figuring out where to put the mounts with all the bowsprit rigging was a challenge.  I didn't want to drill holes in the bowsprit, so have used some of the kwila (100mm x 100mm) from the renovations and also some off cut hardwood to make supports front and rear that clamp onto the bowsprit with 10mm gal bolts (solid pieces right and middle in the photo below).  These support the fitting at the left of the photo which is an angled piece of 20mm hardwood (with 20mm doubler underneath) which has 19mm hardwood sides to keep the chain/anchor contained.  The fitting is angled down slightly, which was a challenge when the bowsprit angles up 12 degrees.  I have now painted it and lined the anchor support with sections of polyurethane cutting board but the photos had too much sun on them to be useful.  I will take some more.

That about gets you up to date.  Plan now is to finish mounting the battery gauges, keep working on a plotter placement bracket and drag the boat out of the shed pending engine connection.

Quotes for sails have been obtained, still chasing riggers.

Slowly, slowly - chainplates started and some final little bits

Starting on a sad note, Mr Charlie Wipple the original client that resulted in the plans for the Sundowner being drawn has passed away.  If you click on the link on the page to the top right you can see his build.  He was kind enough to email compliments to me once on my progress, which was kind


I am juggling work on the house with the build, but it still continues slowly towards a this year launch hopefully.

Since the last update (how quick time flies) I have finished the engine surround box and the door for the storage above it/under the exit into the cockpit.  I also painted the main cabin seats/berth and around the edge of the cabin floor which I think I will Kiwigrip.  None of which is overly interesting in photo so I will save them for when the engine installation is done soon.

With photos I have purchased and mounted a transom ladder, shown below folded up:

And in the down position:

I have purchased two winches, but looks like I will have to mount them on a steel plate and then screw it into the coamings to get the correct alignment angle for the sheets and also be able to securely fix it down. 

I have spent a while working on chainplates.  I corresponded with John Welsford, and marked out the locations with string, plumb bob and crossed fingers.

Once I marked the locations I had to notch in the chainplates slightly.  I put an extra thickness on the rubbing strake where the chainplates go, with the intention getting them in slightly to prevent them catching on anything.  Below shows  the aft most one, with the notches filled with epoxy to seal.

This is after it was sanded back and cleaned up on the stb side.  The top hole and bottom one are to position it down the track, you will see.

Once I had six notches, I then had to shape a backing plate in the space between the chainplate and the hull which was around 25mm.  Below is sitting in place, there will be a 12mm spacer between the top two holes and the gunwale.

I was looking around the shed for some hardwood, and found some kwila hardwood from a door we had removed in the house.  Perfect.  Holding up a level and a bevel gauge I ended up with angles all over the place but cut it to fit against the hull.

Then I ran a pencil along the hull and using an angle grinder with wood disk shaped it to fit against the hull curve.

This is against the hull showing the curve in place, which will have sika between them:

Now of course the wood was too far out, so I marked it for the chainplates, took some measurements for depth and sawed/chiseled and angle grinder/orbital sanded it down.

And with the chainplate in place:

Making six of those kept me out of trouble for a while, here is the port side with the most aft chainplate sitting there.  The chainplates and blocking are vertical, the sides of the chainplate get wider as you go up which makes the forward one look off as the hull curves up.

Next is the inside with backing plates, then sand and finish paint.  After that buy stainless bolts and mount them I guess.  Getting closer slowly.

Rub rails, taff rail, main hatch and lifelines completed

The momentum towards completion continues, with what I think is a large visual change externally.  Once the taff rail was built I took it off and down onto the shed floor for final sanding, and then paint.  With the paint brush out I took the opportunity to pull out other final paint items.

First up was the main hatch which got two thick coats of epoxy wet on wet for sealing. 

Followed by a sand and two coats of oil based sealer undercoat:

Then it got several coats of water based house paint.  At the same time I finished the main hatch entrance which had a piece of hardwood screwed and epoxied onto the inside on both sides:

This also forms the drain for the edge of the main hatch, sloping aft towards the cockpit to drain down beside the washboards.  This is from above, aft to the bottom of the page.

After a sand they got painted as well as the rails:

Then the whole lot was put in place and the garage screwed on.  Note the handrails on the outside, I didn't want to put holes in the cabin roof, and it also leaves the sides of the cabin clear for sheets it I decide to run them aft.

Around paint drying I final mounted the nav lights on the bow (just aft of the first stanchion), along with fairleads (just above the end of the rubbing strake) and the whisker stay plates each side (in front of the nav lighst).

This then led onto mounting the padeye for the attachment of the forward end of the lifelines, using some nylon rope to check the runs.  I was going to put it forward of the fairlead, but the lifeline would foul forward mooring lines:

I also cleaned up the brackets my father welded up in stainless to strengthen the forward end of the taff rail (more later in this post).  The hole allows a coach screw to come up from underneath through the end of the combing, the upright plate stops the wooden post being dragged forward by the lifelines and the piece leaning against it  gets through bolted between the post.  Vertical plate down the outside of the combing gets two countersunk 8g 25mm screws.

Today's (9 Feb) working bee was to mount the taff rail, finish sealing the rubbing strakes while we had the sika marine sealant out and then mount the lifelines.  We tape up around the quarter deck, rubbing strakes where we needed to and spread sika everywhere, sometimes even where we needed it.  Below shows the taff rail bolted screwed and stuck in place.

And a shot showing the bracket.  The two through bolts are 6mm stainless:

And from the side showing the rear plate spreading the load of the bolts.  Originally we only had the bolt from underneath the combing, this is much stronger.  The tape was for the continuation of sealing once we had the taff rail on.

After sealing the final bits of the rubbing strakes we ran the lifelines down each side.  5mm galvanised wire with allegedly sun resistant plastic PVC coating.  Swages each end, the aft fitting that goes through the wooden post is threaded which allows some ability to tighten but they are not structural so no point overdoing the tension.  Below is looking aft from the main cabin hatch:

Looking from the corner of the shed down the port side:

Looking across the transom, didn't end up buying the winches yet but took some measurements and hopefully the handle with turn between the lifelines (or my measurements are out, which is a good possibility!).

Looking aft along the deck from the anchor well:

And forward from the quarterdeck:

Only mishap was I forgot to feed the final lifeline back through the stanchion after I cut it to length before Dad and I put on the swage.  Extra trip to the hardware store to replace it (replaced and shortened the first one we did seeing we had a two pack of swages) but only lost an hour.


Externally I need to paint the outside of the washboards and then I can think about pulling it out of the shed perhaps.  Need to ring the engine bloke again, he is flat out but has most of the fittings etc ready to go.

Inside I have started cutting the foam matresses to fit, first one is away with mum while she looks at covering it for me.  Also have the extra ply to build the engine box/step/table.  Then splash around some paint in the main cabin and start ringing riggers/boat transporters and sailmakers.  That will take longer than I think as usual.....