BigBlog

I hope you all had a good Christmas and we wish you all the best for 2012.

It's been a while since I updated the blog.  But really there has not been too much to tell, not that we have not been working.  Oh yes plenty of hours have been going on up in the cat shed.  Our time log (yes Allan keeps a time log and graph to go with it) keeps going up.  It's the furniture you see as others have told us before it's a big time sink.  We too can only agree!  But we can see a light at the end of the furniture tunnel.  Most is now done and glassed in too, what's left is the cockpit back seat and the helm station.  In fact as it's the summer holiday and both Daniel and Nathan are off until end February, we will have to think up jobs they can now do maybe they can start some of the fairing.  This will be a new job. So we don't know what to expect there. Basically it's like car bogging, putting stuff on then spending hours sanding it off.  The other new thing we can tell you about is Allan has started to make the dagger boards.  What are those you ask?  Well there are two one on each hull and they are a bit like a rudder cross keel or even like the fins on a surf board, they reach down into the water and the other half is up on the deck of each hull, so they can be pulled up or down as you wish.  From what I understand (which is not much) they act as stabilizers to help the boat not skate too much on the water.  The making of them is going to be very time consuming, would have been good to have mounded ones. They are a combination of foam and balsa the foam is laminated together and then glued like a jigsaw to the balsa, the pictures will show you what I mean.  Then to get the curved shape, Allan routes a long line and then routes that out and then sands to the correct shape.  Then it is glassed over the top with a few layers. And that's only a quarter done. One side of one dagger board.   At least it's not been too hot so far this summer. 

Oh dear time has slipped away again and no update to be seen! Sorry once again.

OK what are we up to. Well its currently mid semester break, so we were hoping to get the boys working on the boat a lot. Well we have got some hours out of them but they are always so busy riding bikes or just doing stuff.

We are still building furniture, yes this part takes a lot of time and all home boat builders seem to complain about it! I have to say when we are looking at cupboards and you think now wouldn't it be nice for a draw here and there, but the work involved in making these things kind of now puts you off!  We just keep saying well we will appreciate it down the track when we are actually staying on-board for some time!  It all seems a far off dream sometimes.

We had a visit from Will and Tina, who are also building the same boat.  It is always great to have them around as we exchange ideas and grumbles. But Allan picked up a good idea from Will to put storage under the front bunks. This had the additional advantages of increasing the strength in this a section immensely, as well as making the floor under the mattress nice and flat. It looked simple in concept, but plenty of work later it is finished. Well like most things, almost finished.

We have also finished all the furniture construction for the saloon. Not that it is glassed in yet, however this is coming soon. The lounge was particularly interesting to get in, in one piece. It would have been ok if the shed was another 2 metres wider, but it wasn't However, with twisting it this way then that and up here, over there and a few grunts and some impossible turns, all four of us managed to get it in.

All of us got into glassing the front wardrobe in. That was exercise for us for that month. There is probably more glass in there per square metre than anywhere. It will definitely be strong. It is very interesting how the furniture actually makes the strength in the boat.  You hear about people sailing away with a half finished boat. I am not so sure that is such a good idea! Not that we have a choice.

We are now starting from the front and working backwards, cleaning up all the bits we missed. This is more than we have actually done! However, with time we are starting to get to a point where there is no more construction. However, having said that there is still 6 months more glueing and glassing. Hopefully by Xmas we will be fairing.

Well till next time. Hopefully we will be getting the furniture glued in shortly and will upload some pictures when we do. Allan also is facing the bathroom again. I don't think he likes the bathroom. Too many things in a confined area.