Goodbye 2008

Well, as predicted, not a lot happened this last month. We have had some cold weather, and throughout the holiday period temperatures have struggled to get above freezing. Still in a few moments of madness I've wrapped up well and cut a few pieces of wood here and there. The doghouse continues to be fabricated slowly piece by piece, but there won't be any epoxy mixed until things warm up dramatically.

Happy New Year

November Update

Not much progress this month with the ongoing cold and dark

I managed to get the side frames assembled and glued by bringing them indoors to cure.

I've finalised my design for the rear of the cabin, with removable washboard, and am busy working on this and the cabin top beam fitting, when I can grab a few seconds.

I expect with Christmas almost upon us, December will be a fairly unproductive month.

Rear view

Front view

October Update

Well the weather conspired against us again and we even had an early snow fall on 28th of the month. Because of the cold, I've decided to put off the sheathing work until the spring. With the toe rails more or less finished, I've started working on fabricating the cabin trunk assembly.

First thing is to make the side framing using the template shown in the plans.

Side frame fabrication

In a slight departure to the plans, the rear of the cabin will have a drop in wash board. I'm busy trying some different "mock ups" before I decide on the final design. This should keep me busy in my thinking chair for a while!

Rear of Cabin

More next month.......

Ironsides Floats

Another one hits the water.

CONGRATULATIONS to Steve Yahn on the successful launch of his Paradox "Ironsides" on 16th of October.

A splendid looking vessel. Best wishes Steve.

September Update

Following on from where we left off last month. I finally finished off the internal painting and all the bits and pieces I wanted to do before decking. It was then just a question of mixing up lots of epoxy and banging home a few nails!

Epoxy for foredeck

Lots of pressure applied

Final view of lazzarete before decking

Masked and ready for deck

And now the side decks

Trim and tidy up

Lots more sanding

Rudder on gudgeon

Preparing and shaping toerails

A final peep inside

So that's more or less it for September. Plans are to continue with the toerails, filling and fairing and hopefully glassing the entire hull. After that little lots done we can start work on the cabin top!

August Update

I've just a few hours of the month left to squeeze in an update for August.

As usual every time you think you're ready for the next stage, you find a hundred little things that need doing! I'm still working towards getting the decks fitted, and in fact they are all cut and internally coated with epoxy, but I want to make sure that as much of the internals as possible are finished before I proceed.

Two jobs that needed completing were the installation of the steering lines and the tiller port transom opening. The steering lines are fairly straight forward and quickly sorted out.

Steering lines trial fit.






































Next job was the tiller port opening in the transom. This was a bigger job as it means hanging the rudder first to accurately measure the port opening. Of course this couldn't be done without manufacturing the lower gudgeon. To do this I made a mould (or form) out of scrap Styrofoam left over from the hull insulation.

Create gudgeon mould























Cut out shape of gudgeon and discard!





















The resulting mould was firstly coated with thickened epoxy/cabosil mixture. I then added six layers of wetted out glass cloth and pressed firmly to walls. A large plastic bag was then placed in the mould and filled with hot water. This helped hold the glass in position whilst curing, squeezing out excess resin through a slot in the bottom of the mould - a poor mans vacuum bag system. Once cured enough I continued to fill the mould with chopped glass, with occasional layers of biax cloth. It was as this process came to a finish that the smoke started to rise as the moulding became red hot. I ended up ripping the foam mould off so that I could immerse the smoking gudgeon in a bucket of water. I therefore have no pictures of the moulding in progress!

Fresh from the mould











































The gudgeon has now been drilled for fitting and also given a light coating of microballons which will be sanded to a smooth finish. All in all I'm very pleased with the result.

July Update

I've been busy with lots of things this month, but unfortunately not a lot of boat building.

I'm very nearly ready to fit the decking, I just have a few bits of paint work to finish off and a few small gluing jobs to finish.

The vent trunk is now more or less complete (one of the painting and gluing jobs).

I decided to make an access hatch in the starboard side panel. Some others have made the whole panel removable, others have glued it permanently in position.

Side panel access

Johanna almost ready for decking.