Back underway!

Well, I'm back again - for the two watchers or friends out there who have had a wee look at what I'm up to - its been a busy 9 months, what with a family funeral, daughter's wedding, new job and a house move, so boat things have been pretty much on hold! However, I've recently started to make progress again so thought I'd better include a short account of what has happened.

Last year I did manage to to get the ply fitted to the sides and bottom. The sides are 6mm

Meranti ply (the original plans are 1/4 inch) and the bottom is 9mm (originally 3/8 inch). The bottom was a mission to say the least - the plans suggest soaking the sheets in hot water overnight to get the required bend, but with marine ply soaking seems to make no difference I guess because the glue layers are impervious to water. So I ended up giving up on trying to do the front half with the 9mm and instead put on two layers of 4.5mm, epoxied between. The 4.5mm bent up just fine and to be honest I reckon this is a better way to go about it as the 9mm was so tough to work with even on the gentle curve of the aft half of the bottom.

Having got the ply on, I then decided to get a trailer sorted - I bought an old boat on a trailer, on-sold the boat and then extended the trailer, ground it back to metal and repainted using POR-15, the best anti-rust paint in the world.

So now I'm back to the boat and am finishing the bottom so that I can then sit her on the trailer and work on the deck and insides over the coming months. It will be good to think that at least part of the boat is finished - even the part you can't really see! She's going to be varnished sides and deck with a green bottom and white stripe around the chine. Her she is undercoated and waiting for topcoat. You can see that in our house move last year I lost out big time - my old double garage with heaps of space is now a single width with only just enough room for this project - its a challenge getting around!