Out of the Frying Pan

March 2014

It's been an interesting month with a number of very different jobs going on.  We have now treated the whole of inside of the boat with wood preservative, and an impreg primer which soaks in and protects the timber. 

We have then been hand painting the whole of the inside with a number of coats, while also doing any snagging to get everything up to A1 standard.  A final coat will be sprayed next week to give the required level of finish inside.

The bronze floors have all been going in and fastened to the planking, which looks very impressive down the length of the keel. 

We are very fortunate to have a skilled blacksmith on the team, so we have forged our own keel bolts from high grade aluminium bronze rod.  

There are approximately 60 keel bolts ranging from 3/4" to 1 1/4", which are now all made up and were threaded last week by a local machinist.  

We will start to fit these next week, which means we will able to get the keel fastened back in during April

We can then look at installing the engine and running gear, finishing the bulkheads and starting the interior fitout, and laying the deck which has been machined up and is ready to be laid.

All Planked Up.

With all the planking now done the boat is looking fantastic.  We have tackled the challenging task of removing the lead keel this month, and in the process we have also altered and rebuilt the cradle which has given more space under Fedoa to see the beautiful lines of the hull.

We built a trolley to enable us to move the 8 ton lump of lead, without having to lift the boat.  This went smoothly and enabled us to remove all the old keel bolts.  New bronze keel bolts are now going to be fabricated so we can refit the lead and tie it into the new bronze floors which are all now cast and ready to be fitted.

Now the hull is fully planked up we are treating everything inside with wood preservative , before painting out the interior.   We have fitted the floor bearers in to give us a working level, and have fitted a number of the main bulkheads .  

Before going further we have a week of "snagging", finishing off all the remaining fastenings, butt blocks, etc. to ensure everything is 100% finished before continuing with the engine installation and interior fit-out.

At deck level all the deck beams are now finished and looking great. 

These were faired through last week, and the cedar is cut ready to start laying the subdeck as soon as the bulkheads are in.

We can really feel things moving forward quickly, and expect to see more big changes by the Easter Holidays.