Summary of week to 27April

The previous ten posts added on 27-4 show most of the work carried out last week.
Dave is in good form and working normally on his return to work.
He concentrates on the steelwork but also instructs me so I can carry out the jobs like battening, installing hull fittings and painting.
As we have booked the sprayfoamers for next Tuesday 1 May we have had to work quickly to get the welding on sensitive areas and the battening  and fittings installation completed.
My intention is to spend Monday evening giving the boat a good clean out so no dust and dirt (which we seem to make planty of) is trapped under the spray foam. I know it will never be seen but I won't rest knowing it is there.

Last week we also had a meeting with Loomtech who will produce the  wiring loom.
This involves them going through the boat noting all the electrical fittings and their positions before designing the wiring routes.
All this is marked on the hull but will be imminently covered by sprayfoam so we have photographed it copiously.
Loomtech will then produce the wiring loom so it is available immediately after sprayfoaming and can be fitted before the line out begins.
Please see below a link to the Loomtech website:
http://www.loom-tech.co.uk/

Bow detail and front cants

Thes two photos show the stem iron and front cants nearing completion.

Deck hatch lid

This is the deck lid which allows access when required straight into the under deck storage area. This facilitates the loading of dirty or large items without bringing them through the cabin.
The deck lids on old boats were curved like the deck or alternatively flat.
This one is curved for strength, aesthetics and to shed water better.
Being on a replica of a wooden boat, it is made in the appropriate style and grooved to mimic wooden planks.

The lids on wooden boats had sturdy hinges raised on wooden blocks bolted through the deck. The photo above shows these under construction.

The curved front end of the raising block has been cut from a section of tube.

Although some yard blacksmiths produced some fancy hinges  with scalloped ends we adopted a simple style here ta avoid overdoing the detail.

Here is the lid and hinges during installation.

A photo of the completed assembly will be added next week.

Cabin ring and cable entry

The photo below shows the cabin ring installed on the front port bulkhead. Such rings can be seen on old boats and this one is made in  the style seen on wooden boats where the ring mounting is bolted through the wooden cabin wall. This matches the roof rings shown in an earlier post.
Note the grooving of the steel to replicate wooden planks.
In addition to being decorative these rings provide usefull rope attachments.

The brass fitting above is a plug into a 1/2" BSP socket to allow 12V cables and the TV aerial if required to be fed through the cabin wall. The socket is tilted down to drain ntaurally.
This was adopted as a simple but versatile alternative to the usual prominent and glaring external fittings for routing TV aerial cables into a cabin.

Back cabin porthole liner and more battening

The back cabin has only one porthole on the starboard side.
This liner is made from two layers of birch faced ply carefully cut then fine finished with the flap wheel.
The outer face is fixed to the hull .
The inner face will support and edge the T+G wood lining used in the back cabin.
It can be seen in postion (held by self tapping screws from the outside of the hull within the diameter of the brass exterior fitting) in the bottom left of the second photo.
This has to be in place before the cabin is sprayfoamed.
It was gloss painted before fitting to the hull.

The photos above and below show some extra battening added to the cabin roof and the swim. An advantage of doing the battening  whilst the steelwork is still under way is that small extra itms like the tags can be quickly made and added as requirements are identified. This logic also applies to adding extra hull fittings and tappings. ie vent pipes and sink or pump oulets. If the hull were finished and taken away for fit-out such options would be more limited.

Prisms mounted

To allow light to under the front deck, the bathroom and the back cabin, glass prisms are fitted in these brass surrounds which are screwed into the steel by M6 countersunk screws.

Vents mounted

Along the cabin roof mushroom vents are installed over the saloon, galley, bathroom and back cabin. These are heavy GU style vents and although made of brass they have been painted not polished. This will look more realistic, take less looking after and importantly be less attractive to the light fingered.

As usual each of the four vents is drilled slightly differently so they were each marked for location and alingnment during fitting. As with the portholes they were drilled and tapped 5/16W and fixed temporarily with steel screws as shown before removal. Eventually, after sprayfoaming and painting etc they will be re installed.

In the photo below the vent dome has been removed to allow fitting.
When  installed the inverted dome is operated from inside the boat  using the brass handle.

Portholes mounted

The boat has seven 7" diameter portholes on the cabin.
The heavy brass surrounds are each drilled slightly differently so they must be clearly marked on fitting to ensure they do not get mixed up or misaligned.
Fitting involves clamping in place to use the porthole itself as a jig before drilling and tapping the steel and temporarily fixing with 5/16"W screws.
On final fitting after blasting and painting they will be secured with brass domed screws.

Range shelf

The traditional back cabin cooking and heating range sits on this shelf at the port stern end of the cabin.
Although these small ranges are exempt from the new stove safety regulations due to their small firegrate area this one will be installed within the spirit of the regs by incorporating all resonably practical safety measures applied to the larger stoves.
The range shelf is of steel with an airgap underneath (see lower 2 photos) and no combustible material or insulation close to the sides. These will be faced with tiled fireboard.

Engine room roof panel

The engine room removable roof panel has been refitted (finally) with rubber sealing  gasket around the edge. The allen head crews used were each "copper slipped" before insertion as hopefully they will not need to be removed for many years to come.. The hexagonal recesses will be filled with epoxy during painting so they will resemble rivets

Rudder and skeg

Blow the boat:
This is the skeg and skeg support beam up to the counter with the rudder bar behind sitting in it's plain bearing. The rudder blade is still to be added.
The skeg is 1" thick and, to give slightly more prop clearance, is mounted under the hull baseplate. The front end of the skeg is chamfered to reduce the chance of engaging on an obstacle.

Above the rear deck:

At the top end of the rudder bar (supported by another plain bearing above the rear deck) is this square block. It is tapered and keyed as shown to fit the rudder bar thus allowing the considerable torque imposed by steering the boat to be handled

The Z-iron is welded to this block.

Painted today

As usual, as soon as I can get access after Dave has finished I follow up with paint. After a clean up of the welding and grinding detritus, the back cabin floor bearers etc have been primered and the two sections ahead of the fuel tank (which had been niggling me by being raddle red) have been "bilge blue" glossed.

As the portholes will be fitted during the fit out, then removed and blanked off externally for grit blasting the surrounding 2" has been linnished and primered.

This will also allow easier marking up with a pencil whilst the steel is drilled and tapped to mount the brassware.

Not a very interesting photo is it, but hey -  some jobs are like that.

Back cabin floor bearers, step and fuel tank additions.

The bearers for the back cabin floor have been added.

Below is the steel step into the back cabin viewed from below:

And above

Looking forward across the fuel tank.

This is not a handle. It is a pipe which allows levels in either side of the top the fuel tank both sides of the propshaft notch to equalise.

Plate certifying the fuel tank test pressure and volume.

This plate welded to the back of the fuel tank is the mounting for the pump which will transfer diesel from the main tank to the Kabola C/H boiler header tank. Being drip feed,  the  Kabola fuel supply only needs about a foot of hydraulic head so the tank iteslf will be installed under the back cabin bench in the small triangular space adjacent the swim which is otherwise of little use.

Cabin detail.

Roof drainholes through the handrails.

Engine room hatch edge.

Stern deck, cants and dollies

This is the almost complete cabin and rear deck.
The door has been edged and the cants and dollies have been built.

Deck detail.

Although they don't look it due to optical distortion the dollies are actually vertical and parallel.  They have to be strong to withstand mooring and anchoring forces so they are made from 2 inch diameter bar and carried through the cants and deck. As the photo below shows they are also welded from below the rear deck.

Progress on back internal and cabin details

Since re-starting work a couple of weeks ago Dave has made good progress on the rear deck which is now complete, plus the detailed work on the back cabin. Also the back cabin floor bearers have been installed along with some fuel tank features.
Yesterday we marked out the position of electrical items in chalk on the boats interior and I caught up with painting where possible.
I shall be taking up temporary residence at the yard next week to continue the fit out

Back end details. Hatch slide runners





Rear cabin hatch runners.

The photo above shows the detailed scrollwork of the slide runners.

Photos below show stages in the production of this steel facsimile of a feature that would originally been made of wood.

Steel angle with the third, sloping side welded along it's length to give the trapezoidal  cross section.

Scroll end constructed from short lengths of heavy tube and bar.

Here is the completed job.

In the foreground the hole cut in the roof is where the cabin stove chimney will exit.

We're baaaaaack!

Great news.
Dave has recovered from his accident and has has today resumed work.
He has been welding around the stern bulkhead and step.

There are about 2 weeks work to complete the steelwork before finishing battening out, fitting the portholes then sprayfoaming.
We can then conitinue with the fit out proper.
- Just a bit later than we planned.

For the last few weeks I have been keen to post that work would soon restart but did not want to tempt fate.

In the months that the hull has been standing it has rusted nicely which has lifted and broken up the millscale. This means that the millscale (the hard blue surface on the steel from the manufacturing process) will easily be removed when the hull is shotblasted.