More sanding, screwing, and a new hatch

Blood, sweat and tears. Stainless steel is sharp. 

Setting up a slide milling machine

Slides are stuck in with Sika

Some welcome assistance from Shakil, from Mauritius, made the work proceed a lot faster. He brought some engineering precision to my usual hit-and-miss approach, and we set the small circular saw to cut accurate slots in the plastic slides for the new hatch. Yes, the sun was beginning to eat the old wooden hatch despite the best varnish I could throw on it. And a steel boat must have a steel hatch, I think. So stainless steel was bought, bent and shaped, slides made and assembled. But they stuck despite our accurate measurements and cuts. So, since Shakil had left, I got the angle grinder out and widened the slots. Sorry, Shakil, sometimes the hit-and-miss process hits the spot! Now a nice wooden edging must be cut to avoid getting scalped on the sharp edge. How does one cut curves accurately?

And the hatch is in. Almost...

Inside work proceeded apace. Fore-under ceilings and insulation is in, again largely due to Shakil's help, and I changed the system for holding the floors, they now have countersunk stainless steel bolts holding in stainless steel RivNuts in the angle iron floors, and blocks on the sides of the angle floors keep the planks aligned. One still needs to be trimmed, and the forward cabin needs more floor planks.

Shakil helped with the ceilings under the foredeck. 

The side cladding in the saloon has begun, but the problem now surfaces: My screwing blocks are 32mm brandering, the frames are 40mm steel. The result is that either the plywood cladding planks want to fit between the frames, leaving steel exposed, or the blocks need padding up. I am going to try the latter. Before sandblasting and painting we put steel strips under the cockpit and where the pilot berth should go for panels to lie on, but because I was worried about rust under the strips I did not weld those on right through the hull. I should have, that would have made cladding a walk in the park. To weld now would be a major exercise, but maybe I should bite the bullet. In the meantime I am going to put plywood strips on the blocks to hold the cladding, with bolts through the strips into the blocks, and inserts in there. Comments are welcome. 

She has to have eyes. 

I am also looking at bow art. Dreamtime has to have eyes, to see rocks and things, but I also fancy the idea of a dolphin, having been told that a buxom mermaid would land me in hot water. Sharon has begin to draw a combined dragon and dolphin, and other design ideas would be most welcome.

Or would a dolphin do?

I also finished the re-do  of the bulkhead panels. They were in 9mm ply, but could not conform to the curvature of the steel. I literally broke them out, replaced them with 6mm ply, and used the old holes for the opening ports to make frames. Looks reasonable, I think. I also made a number of wedges, again from the lovely birch ply, well sealed, to fit in where the hull and the bulkheads or floor planking do not quite match up.

Making plywood wedges is easy. 

Panelling in the forward cabin is getting there. 

Sanding, sanding, sanding... and then sticking, sticking.

Frames for the main hatch.

Rigging up to hoist the cabinets. 

For the past weeks I have been sanding down lacquered panels to give the glue somewhere to stick, and sanding down new panels. Now some are going in, and more will be fitted in the coming week.

I made frames for the main hatch, with cross-bars for handholds. These were made, ruined, re-made, routed, sanded, and finally glued in place with Sika. They seem firmly in place and I trust they are not going to go anywhere.

The offending panel in the main cabin was stripped, and a new one made, Surprisingly it came out well, the holes just needed a little re-drilling.

Security detail: where are these from?

The Health and Safety geese at the building site
were not impressed. 

I also began to prepare for fixing the cabinets in the forward cabin, first hoisting them on board, then measuring them, tracing where they should go, and installing brass inserts for the bolts. These are left-overs from my late father-in-law's defunct furniture factory. After 50 years in storage they had to be turned down, and hopefully will go to sea as he dreamed of doing.

Delicate dismantling of a badly made panel:
machete and number one persuading tool

Gluing the screwing blocks. Dozens of them

Bolting in the brass inserts

The finishing washers I had to have smuggled in from the UK were installed in a few places. They are just not available here, and are cheap enough, but the supplier would not deliver in South Africa. Now all the visible bolt heads have to be finished like these, and I will finish the wiring and installing the lights at the same time.

Finishing washers make the countersunk bolts lookbetter

I also continued gluing screwing blocks along the inside of the hull, to hold the covering planks, and hide the insulation. As in the past, high technology does not scare us: CAD is the order of the day. You can see the cardboard panels that will become plywood covering poanels - Cardboard Aided Design.

And after months of working, buying bits and pieces, using some, working, buying more, there was a need for sorting out the bolts into different lengths, nuts into regular and Nylock, and so on.

Hopefully I will have some more hands helping me in the coming weeks. But the dogs and geese at the building site are always there with a demand for attention, and sometimes a hissing comment.

Sorting the bolts, nuts, washers. 

Making cardboard mock-ups of the panels that
will cover the hull. Screwing blocks in evidence

Still working at the woodwork

Insulation batting: a few more blocks are needed.

Another month has come and gone, and the progress is rather slow. I have had to spend quite some time doing other things, and also re-doing things I screwed up. Amazing what a difference 10mm makes. And once cut, you cannnot put it back.

The insulation work has gone reasonably well, and showed up a few things that need re-doing. I have also received the light fittings, so a number of the boards have to come out again. But that will happen in August.

My co-workers have also been absent, but Alexander helped me with the router, and I am slowly getting better with it.

Oupa Piet's router; a dark art. 

CAD: It is going to fit!

Yes sir! It goes in and looks right!

CAD (Computer Aided Design) is the latest craze, and I used a variation to see how I will get the cabinetry into the boat: Cardboard Aided Design. These two cabinets will go into the front cabin, and need to be removable. Note, I used the 4 inch spikes as locating pins for the shelves inside. To handle the assembly single-handed I made long clamps from 50 x 50 brandering with threaded rod. It worked a treat. Now the cabinets have to be finished off, dis-assembled and glued, then sanded, varnished, fitted, fettled... a long way to go.

Threaded rod clamps hold all together, most of the time. 

Roofing spikes serve as locating pins. 

The next job is the rest of the front cabin: bunk, side cladding, panels against and under deckhead. Then comes the main cabin: One bulkhead has to be redone, the seats have to come out and be redesigned, and the hull insulated. The galley has to be fitted and re-evaluated, and then comes the bathroom. Not to mention the electrical system that has to come in soon. And then the plumbing.

The two assemblies look right, but there is still a lot of work!
Note the split in the bigger cabinet, it is too big for the hatch
 as it is. 

I also made a plywood mockup of an anchor I intend having cut, but the first try showed that my bow roller is not right. And I made a mockup of the companionway ladder, but the final attempt will have to wait until I am better with the router, and the floor panels are in.

Anchor mockup

And lastly I discovered that the sun is making fun of the very best varnish I could find. Six months down the line and it is flaking off the companionway hatch. So what now? Cladding with stainless steel? Making one out of stainless steel?

Screwing blocks being sealed. 

I have also begin preparing another lot of blocks to hold the panelling along the lower part of the hull, this must also be insulated, but there is still a lot of cabinetry to finish.

Companionway ladder will go here, but where exactly?

Main hatch: varnish coming off already. 

More woodwork

Helping...

I am not good at wood work. But between breaks to do family duties, I slave away. With some help, some comment, and some promises. Hopefully I will get more expert advice, and even some help.

At the moment I am insulating the top of the cabin, and putting the ceiling and side panels back. I installed wiring where I think the lights and power leads should go, not an easy one-hand job. But it has to be done.

I am (re) installing the panels with nylon inserts and stainless steel bolts, so they can come out easily. The brass screws just did not look neat, and were flimsy. But getting the holes in the panel to line up with the inserts is not that easy, as the plywood tends to grab the drill bit and pull the drill away from where it should go.

Padded cell for crazy boat maniac

The panels at the front and back of the cabin were stuck in with Sika, I took them out (in one case broke it out) because there is cabling that has to go behind the panel. I made blocks around the opening port, and at the corners of the panel, drilled and fitted the inserts, bolted all together, and will now Sika the blocks to the hull. Then, when it is set, the panel will come out, antifungus sealer will go on, wiring will go in, and all will go together again.

I am painting, in many cases repainting the wood, blocks, back of panels, with a waterbase anti-fungus sealer product. Dry rot, even in a steel hull, is not going to be fun.

Making frames for the opening ports.

At the dry dock, preparing to installthe nylon inserts

Nylon inserts.

Everything takes longer

Ready for the third voyage. Thanks, Reinhard!

And we undertook another voyage. I gave up on getting Dave to do things my way, and found a temporary harbour at the Garden Root, a nursery not too far from home.

Prince left the gardening for a while and helped with patterns. 

And my dog took a chunk out of my arm, with ensuing infection which required two operations. So I enlisted all possible helpers, and even got to use some of my grandfather's tools!

To be redone: Floors, panels, ceilings (Yes, I know all these things have nautical names... ) and then the interior furniture. I am waiting for the light fittings to be delivered, I found the plastic inserts I want to use to be able to remove the ceilings, and I have an eye on brass ones for the panels and other furniture.

Electric wiring can begin to go in, and then we are off for three weeks!

Some rain has come in, and now we see the truth of the need for proper varnish. At least I have been able to contact the industrial sales manager of a major paint manufacturer, who put me on to an industrial, anti-fungal paint. But the bad news is: All the laquer has to come off...

Shahnaz lent a hand. Grandfather's marking gauge
worked after all these years, batteries did not run out
 on these things.  

Is that how you do it?

Fungus damage after rain. Not good. 

Mine is bigger than yours...

Yes, Doug, but mine is closer to the finish, I hope.

Shahnaz with Seeker. 

Another load of lead goes in.

Casting the bronze.

No, it was not a magical transformation. We were going on a diving trip to Mexico, and stopped off for a week with Doug and Betsy in Oklahoma to give them a hand with their boat, SV Seeker. She is more than three times the size of Dreamtime, and Doug has shown remarkable drive and dedication to bring this enormous project so far. We were able to meet some of his many friends and collaborators, exchange ideas, and learn a lot. Apart from pouring 10 000 lbs of lead into the keels, we also participated in casting a bronze gipsy for the capstan, an incredible experience.

Doug is an example to all boat builders, and I heartily recommend his website: www.svseeker.com.

Thanks for the hospitality and friendship!

And yes, we did get some fantastic diving, as well as a great taste of Mexico. We might be doing a blog on that too.

Next week I hope to move Dreamtime closer to home, and begin the finishing off.

The results look good. 

Shahnaz with Pancho Villa. 

Rocca Partida in the far Pacific. Mantas just below the surface. 

This is not April Fool's day yet

Extensive use was made of CAD:
Cardboard Aided Design

The woodwork has been making slow progress, characterised by the statement: "Coen, you cannot do it like that." People who know me will know what the result of such a statement is. One problem is the sealing of the wood. Dave believes that it is not necessary, and that the lacquer will be good for 50 years. So all will have to come out and every edge sealed with epoxy.

The offending panel. The water stain can come out,
but the patches will remain. 

Bambo work top: And he probably expects
 me to prepare food on that!

The main bulkheads are in, and packed up because the brackets are not in line. The packing pieces will have to be re-done, sealed in epoxy and bolted in. One bulkhead has to be replaced, the bad side of the plywood faces the living area, the good side is in the shower compartment where it will  be painted. Now some people suggest that one could put things over the bad spots on the offending bulkhead. Which brings me to Benjamin Franklin's statement: "If better is possible, good enough is not good enough. I will not be able to look at that bulkhead for hours as it is.

Window frames and cover strips

Second part of galley unit. 

Forecabin jigsaw puzzle

The galley is almost finished, it will have a bamboo worktop. It comes in several pieces and not, as I wanted, in separate units that can be removed and modified one at a time. So that is something I will have to change. The same goes for the furniture in the saloon. They are nice pieces of joinery work, but I will have to rework them to get what I wanted. The same goes for the lockers in the fore cabin.

Deck beams in production

The floor planks are more or less assembled. I convinced Dave that they can have hooks under so they can slide into the steel angle to lock down. Some stiffening will still be needed, and some mechanism for locking them in place will still be designed. The ceilings are ready and was being sprayed when I was there on Friday. The side panels complete with window frames are in, or ready to go in. Getting insulation behind the panels still present problems, I will have to remove them, do some more preventative painting behind the panels, cut the insulation batting by hand, and stick it in.

Does he have a clue what he is going to do?

Some thoughts on subcontracting: Janice in Seaweed had lots to say about her two year re-engining saga, and I cannot disagree. (http://janice142.com/Articles/ThreeKeysWhenHiring.html) One problem is that people do not know how to listen. That has been a problem since the beginning of this project. To the extent that I now take a pencil and chalk and write what I said on the offending piece.

When selecting a subcontractor, observe: If he (or she) is more interested in telling you their anecdotes and clever ideas, keep on looking. If someone tells about a job they are really proud of, ask for contact details to check if the client was also satisfied. And do check, or walk away. Ask why I say so...

Floor planks showing hooks and interlocks. 

My hoped-for launch date was March. I am now hoping that I will be ready for the water by December, even if some of the systems are not ready.

With the boat more than an hour away from me, and with the woodwork going on inside I have been unable to work on the electrical system or the plumbing. When I get to it I will write it up.

But on 1 April the boat has to move from Dave's. I had an ideal site close to home, but the City Council will not allow. Another possibility is not saying Yes. I have two possibilities to try on Monday, then I am off for three weeks.

My tarot cards said: Be open to the Universe. Ask what you need. I guess a good building site will appear.