Fitting Out (Year 12):

Date	Discussion
1st April 2021	Here we go again, dear Reader - another year and another chapter of just "Fitting Out"! When I started this "blog" in 2007, considering the design for a new boat, I had no idea that I would still be adding to it fifteen years later and that the boat would still be unfinished. However, there is absolutely no sense of disappointment here! It has been the best hobby. It has stretched me in all directions. I have had to learn new skills, find new materials and solve all sorts of issues with geometry, hydrodynamics, chemistry, plumbing and wiring. The Project has woken me at night with new problems or when the sleeping subconscious found a new solution. It has given me a reason to get out of bed every day, which, for some people in retirement, can be a problem. In addition, there is always the lure, the dream and the ambition of throwing the whole lot into the river and sailing off into the sunset to explore this great country. The outside of the boat is now ready for its final coat of paint. Once that is done, the windows can be installed, and the boat moved out of the shed to greet the sunlight - a "birth" of sorts. Then the flybridge has to be made and added on top. The interior still needs work to finish a host of more minor things like plumbing and wiring. The engine, gearbox and other mechanicals are all complete, although a rudder would be nice. Will the boat be in the water this year? Could be, and when I know, so will you! So, as Henry V says, according to the Bard, "Once more into the breech, dear friends" for another year of Just the Fitting Out to go...
29 April 2021	April has been the month of the "hatchlings". That sounds like the introduction to a horror movie, but it's not. Well, not a movie at least - it may be another type of horror, but we'll see. Rhapsody has six deck hatches. There are two, one each side, on the transom for the removeable fuel tanks and stern line storage. A second pair are halfway down the hull, one each side, to hide the Port and Starboard black tank pump-out connections and the last two are on the forepeak. One is for the gas bottle locker and the other, right in the bow, covers the anchor storage compartment. Each hatch is made in two parts. The first is the cover itself, of course, and the second is a frame, to be let into the timber, to provide a tidy and solid edge upon which the hatch can close. Five of the six hatches are now finished and installed with only the anchor locker hatch remaining. Getting this far has been a longwinded learning exercise. It has been my first real experience with mould making with MDF and plasticine, PVA mould release, polyester resin, gelcoat, chopped strand mat and polyester Coremat. All are great products, but each has its own learning curve. As with so many things, by the time all the hatches are finished and I don't need to make anymore, I will have become almost adequate at doing it! Ah, well! The gas locker hatch is set across the foredeck which is, of course, curved. So, installing a pair of hinges can be an issue because the pivot pins across those hinges must be in direct line with each other, otherwise the hatch will jam when you try to open it. However, I saw an advertisement some time ago for a hinge called the "Intelli-Hinge" and it is a really clever device. They're available from Go2Marine in Florida and have a ball in a socket instead of a hinge pin. It means that a pair of hinges can be on completely different planes and they will still operate smoothly. Intelli-Hinges are not cheap at $AU75 each, plus freight, but I'm pretty sure that they are unique. They are cast and polished SS316 and, happily, I bought two pairs somewhat in advance of them being needed - in 2011 to be precise, when at least, they were a bit cheaper! They weren't bought that far in advance because of any mystical foresight - I just didn't expect the boat to take anything like this long to get to the point where they were required! One of the problems of buying items so far in advance is that when you do finally get to the point of installing them, they don't want to be found! I have several sheds containing "boat stuff", together with lots of other unrelated bits and pieces. Some "stuff" is with the boat, but we had a burglary on the boatshed site (which, happily, didn't affect me), so I moved lots of things to other places. Given that the boat hasn't been painted yet, none of the fittings can be, well, fitted, as yet, and things are getting lost. Grrr! Anyway, the gas bottle hatch is now finished and installed and works very smoothly. A mounting pad for my son's "electrickery" required to monitor the gas bottle changeover gadget is also installed, ready for the wave of his magic wand. The mould for the anchor locker hatch frame has been made and will be laid up next week. The mould can then be changed to be able to cast the actual hatch cover itself. I already have an appropriately sized sand anchor, although it may just have to be trimmed a tiny bit to fit through the hatch. The storage area is very deep and uses the space behind the fridge. There is a false bottom below the hatch cover that will hide the anchor and make a separate storage space for the bow line. The anchor will be a bit awkward to access from that position but, given that it's only really required in the case of an engine or steerage failure, hopefully I'll never need it. I have used an anchor in anger on the river, but only once and that's across many years of cruising, but that's another very long story... The galley cupboards haven't received any attention in a very long time. However, given that the gas line and most of the forepeak wiring has now been installed, together with the plumbing for the sink, it seemed like an appropriate time to revisit the remaining tasks. I made temporary chipboard bench tops as templates, many moons ago, but since any flat surface, upon which you can put "stuff", is in ongoing, high demand, they had become completely buried. So, after relocating all the rubbish and cleaning up, the templates were taken off the boat and used to cut the real tops from 10mm ply. These have now been dry-fitted and then glued into place and I'm proposing to finish them off now, before they drown in junk and I have to clean them off yet again! The plywood benchtops will be topped with Red Gum laths. I have some very old boards from the 1880s which will be sawn into 10mm by about 40mm planks and glued in place. They will then be oiled with pure Tung Oil. It will make the timber a bit dark, but it makes a very hygienic area for food preparation. Some of the more trivial jobs that go on, almost in the background, are things like fitting a red night light in the bathroom. I have one in the saloon and I don't want to have to turn on all the lights to go to the bathroom at night and disturb my partner, so a night light should solve the problem. I had always intended to fit a range hood in the galley over the stove. However, that plan was abandoned because the resulting lack of headroom over any gastronomic delights in saucepans being prepared there would have meant you couldn't see into the pots. Not good! So, a separate exhaust fan was acquired and fitted - thank you eBay! All that remained was to source a suitable LED light, which has now been done. One of the jobs I have been energetically avoiding is cleaning the shed. It must be done before the boat can be painted, of course, because of the mountains of sawdust everywhere! There's dust in the rafters, on the walls, on the floor and even on (and in) the boat. So, as a result of hunting high and low for the recalcitrant Intelli-Hinges I have made a start on cleaning. Not a big start, because I found the hinges which killed my motivation - so, you see, it's all their fault...
4 June 2021	This month has all been about hatches and fuel injection. One job is finished, and the other is just starting. I seem to have been making hatches and their attendant frames for months. That's not actually true, of course, it just feels that way. There are six hatches, and each has to have a custom frame to sit in. Like so many things, it's not the making of the hatch that takes the time, it's the making of the mould or plug, in which to cast the hatch, that takes the time. Once the frame is made, the deck has to be suitably rebated to receive it. The frame is then glued into the deck and faired with the surrounding timber. Reinforcing timber/glue has to be added behind and under the frame to provide the necessary strength. The mould then has to be altered and made smaller in order to make the hatch lid itself, to account for the thickness of the frame. The glass is 200gsm chopped strand mat and the three layers used end up about 3mm thick overall. Once the mould is modified it can be coated with Mould Release Wax and PVA and then painted with white Gelcoat. After the first layer of glass is applied, pieces of timber are added to provide supports to which the hinges can be attached and to provide additional strength. A mid-process change of design made the anchor hatch rather more difficult than it would otherwise have been. The mould was finished and the frame cast and installed. However, I wanted to mount the boarding ladder on the very point of the bow on a turntable and I had made the hatch too big to leave room for the turntable. So, the mould was modified and a new part-frame cast. Part of the MKI frame in the boat was cut out and a piece of the original deck, which had been cut out much earlier, was glued back in. (At least the curvature was correct!) The new part-frame was installed and reinforced appropriately, whilst the mould was modified again to produce a MKII hatch. All very tedious! Anyway, it's all made and installed and looks good. The forward anchor locker hatch was installed using the "Intelli-Hinges" once again, because of the curved surfaces. I also decided to hinge it on its front edge so that when it is open you still have something to stand on, i.e., the gas bottle hatch. This is a small point, but if you're looking for the anchor, presumably it's an emergency (about the only time you would use an anchor on the river), and you would not want to be teetering about on the top of the stem post! So, the final result is that all six hatches and their frames are now finished and installed. Phew! The concertina boarding ladder is to be mounted on the top of the stem post at the very front of the boat. This will allow the vessel to be moored at a wide range of angles and the steps will still reach the riverbank. The turntable is a marine grade stainless steel item that is normally used to provide a swivel function for a captain's chair. It is 160mm square and therefore rather larger than the stem post, so it has to be set back by a small amount. That means that the bolts on each side of the turntable reach beyond the sides of the hull and therefore have nothing solid underneath to which they can be bolted! Whilst pondering this issue, another and much earlier thought wobbled to the surface. It has always been intended to have a Rubbing Strake along both sides of the boat to protect it against the odd mooring mishap and boat builders of old used thick rope for this purpose. I had considered adopting this approach for Rhapsody given that, whilst working as a river skipper, I was able to acquire approximately 75metres of used 35mm polypropylene rope, which is ideal. Also, mounting rope down both sides of the boat in a timber frame would make the side decks 50mm wider too, which was also part of the plan. Not only, then, should the Rubbing Strake extend down both sides of the boat, but why not around the stem post as well? To achieve that in a tidy fashion, a half-round moulding was designed, recognising the minimum bending radius of the 35mm rope, to go right around the top of the stem post. That moulding then, very happily - surprise, surprise, provides the perfect mounting platform for the boarding ladder turntable. Just have to manufacture it now... The anchor is the Sand Anchor type of about 15Kg and is almost as wide as the anchor hatch itself, which makes it not only heavy to manoeuvre, but decidedly awkward as well. I asked a number of people what the small extension bars on the sides of the anchor were for and no one knew! So, I cut them off. It makes managing the anchor much easier, but I do hope I won't live to regret it! One of the major design decisions made many years ago was to not go with solar power for propulsion. There is much discussion about the pros and cons of that decision elsewhere in this document. So, what was the best alternative? I hate diesel engines in boats - they're noisy, smelly and vibrate everything from your glassware to your ribcage. They don't call them "stink-boats" for nothing! Therefore, the only real alternative for me is a petrol engine. The major disadvantage of petrol as a fuel is, of course, its potential to cause a catastrophic explosion or fire. And try getting insurance! The upsides of using a petrol engine are that they can be quiet, don't vibrate or smell and are readily available. In fact, I already had a spare 149cuin (2.5litre) fully marinised engine in the shed, so it was the obvious choice. Since then, much time, effort and money has been spent on trying to reduce the chance of a fire. There are four bilge blowers operated on timers and an electronic "sniffer" system, to keep petrol vapour out of the bilges. The air intake for the engine is trunked in from outside, instead of the usual inboard arrangement, just to avoid problems from a backfire. A heat sensitive, automatic fire extinguisher system is also installed. However, the dream has always been to have a sealed fuel injection system to replace the carburettor completely and thereby avoid most of these issues. There are a number of challenges in changing to fuel injection. The major one is cost. Fuel injection systems need an Engine Computer Unit (ECU) to manage them and the cheapest I could find, after significant research, was the MegaSquirt II at around $4,000. That changed recently when I became aware of a system based on the Arduino range of baby computer chips which sell for just $30. Of course, they do need an extra driver board to provide the interface with an engine, but these are now available for about $300 all up. The software to run these systems has been placed in the Public Domain and is freely available. All of which means that, suddenly, fuel injection is worthy of serious re-consideration. Automobile engines migrated from carburettors to fuel injection during the 1980s and 1990s. Their first attempts used a single injector in a casting that simply replaced the carburettor and was called Throttle Body Injection (TBI), (among other things). Since then, separate injection for each individual cylinder (sequential) has become the norm but has required some significant engine design changes. So, to retrofit fuel injection to an old engine with minimum changes, using the TBI approach is the easiest. The first step is to find a donor vehicle - one that was fitted with TBI as standard and that is readily available. After much research, I selected a 1996 Holden Barina SB "Swing". It was actually made by Opel in Germany, a General Motors company, and sold in Australia in large enough numbers for them to be readily available in wreckers' yards. Whilst the Opel engine is only 1600cc, it is also only four cylinder which means that the individual cylinder size is 400cc which compares nicely with the 2440cc, six-cylinder engine in the boat, at 406cc. It is true that the injector has to fire more frequently i.e., three times per revolution instead of twice, but the Opel engine is rated at 6000rpm, whilst the boat engine is unlikely to exceed 3000rpm. It is also interesting, and very reassuring, to note that the throat sizes of the Opel TBI and the Stromberg carburettor it's replacing are the same, at 35mm. So, it should all work - we'll see... There are a number of aspects of the already installed and running engine that have to be changed, specifically, the air intake system and the fuel system. The ECU will need to be installed as well, of course, with its attendant wiring. To simplify the air intake system changes it was decided to use the complete air-box and filter unit from the donor vehicle. This has required a new mounting frame to be made and installed in the hull. It now connects into the original trunking to access fresh air from outside the hull and is ready to connect to the new TBI using a standard size 60mm hose, (albeit a bit longer). More, quite possibly much more, of this later...
25 June 2021	After many years building a wooden boat, this month I had to resurrect my (admittedly, somewhat limited) metal working skills. Replacing the carburettor on the boat's engine with the throttle body from a different engine sounds simple enough, but hardly surprisingly, the new part doesn't fit on the old mountings. So, an adaptor is required. The adaptor is made from two 10mm steel plates. One plate has holes to match the old carburettor and the other plate is drilled and tapped to match the new throttle body. The two plates are then simply welded together via a length of steel tubing. Welding is not my forte and joining thin wall pipe to thick plates carries challenges of its own. However, it is now finished and looks very businesslike. At least, it will when I've painted it! There is still the small matter of building a throttle linkage to connect the new throttle body to the boat's engine controls. Fuel has to be vaporised before it can be burnt in an engine. A carburettor achieves this by allowing the engine to draw a fine mist of fuel into the inlet system where it vaporises. A fuel injection system does the same job by spraying fuel into the engine through a very fine jet at high pressure, vaporising it instantly. This is why fuel injection systems can be so efficient but note the need for fuel at high pressure! Most fuel pumps designed for carburetted systems work at about 4psi. Their job is simply to get the fuel from a tank (or tanks) and deliver it to the float bowl where it waits to be "sucked" into the engine. Petrol sitting around in a float bowl and producing vapour, whether the engine is running or not, is, of course, where the major fire hazard occurs. The fuel pump in an injected engine, in contrast, will commonly provide fuel at three times atmospheric pressure (3bar) or 43psi, but there is no float bowl. (High performance engines will use much, much higher pressures.) To ensure fuel is delivered to the injector at the correct pressure, a regulator is required. Fuel is delivered at high pressure and the regulator adjusts that pressure to suit the injector accounting for altitude, ambient air pressure and temperature. Happily, in this case, the regulator is built into the throttle body and is entirely automatic. The fuel that is not required by the regulator to maintain the correct pressure is returned to the tank from which it was drawn. So far, so good, except that the boat has three fuel tanks and naturally that excess fuel needs to be returned to the tank from which it was originally taken. One solution involves many more solenoids and pipes, but a simpler approach is to use a small temporary storage tank close to the engine. This approach is often used in performance vehicles to avoid fuel surges created by high-speed operation - not so much of a problem in the boat, but it does mean that these components are readily available, and the use of a surge tank is a convenient solution where multiple tanks are in use. Fuel is drawn from one of three tanks by individual, low pressure, fuel pumps and delivered to the surge tank. A high-pressure pump then delivers fuel to the regulator at anything up to 150psi, and the excess is returned to the surge tank to "go around" again. A suitable 1.25litre surge tank, Bosch 044 type high pressure pump and 40micron filter have been purchased. This approach to fuel management means that the system is completely sealed and, barring equipment failures, should never release explosive fuel vapour into the boat at any time. And that, after all, is the whole point of the exercise! In passing, you might ask "Why three fuel tanks?" Well, one of the earliest decisions made about the design of the boat was to have two 25litre removable outboard style petrol tanks in lockers incorporated in a lazarette built-in as part of the transom. It was practically the first job done once the hull was turned the "right-way-up" and they were designed to provide a way of taking petrol to the boat only when it was required and not leaving it onboard when it was not. Fuel left onboard not only deteriorates over time but is dangerous. Anyway, enough of EFI matters, what about making the boat longer? The very handsome Bow Fender, as described elsewhere, has now been made and installed, which has the absolutely irrelevant side effect of making the boat 50mm longer. So, we now go from an overall length of 11,110mm to - you guessed it - 11,160mm and I only mention it because, when converted and rounded to feet, the boat becomes a 37' boat instead of a 36' boat. As I said, irrelevant - but nice! (36' 7.37", if you want to be precise.) The only remaining major part of the boat's machinery still outstanding is the rudder. The rudder post with bearings and grease seals, has been installed in the hull for a long time and it was now time to wriggle underneath into the world of dust and spiders with a sheet of MDF and make a suitable pattern. Since the hull has a tunnel stern, and therefore, a negative deadrise, the angle of the rudder's upper edge is determined by the clearances at full lock in each direction, rather than when at midships. The rudder could be a simple flat panel like a barn door but would be much more efficient if it had a more streamlined cross section like an aircraft wing. Many years ago, NASA (NACA back then) defined a range of profiles for wings and rudders and a friend of a friend wrote a program for his Commodore 64 (remember those?) that, given the basic sizes, would print a perfect, full sized wing profile. (Thanks, Moose!) The computer program might be ancient, but it still works beautifully and produced a great profile for the boat's rudder. The flat rudder template was then fitted with additional horizontal guides to implement the profile, which will then be used to make a mould to build the actual rudder itself. To give the shape thickness, it was filled with Plaster of Paris as a cheap, readily available and workable filler, but it felt like being in primary school. Mess everywhere. Ah! My second childhood, finally...
25 July 2021	Ah! The joys of Lockdown have finally come to Adelaide. So, not much boat building at present. Actually, that's not true, of course, because I have many boat related jobs "on the list" that I can, indeed must, do at home because of where the relevant tools and materials are stored. Jobs such as building all the electronic bits and pieces that will make the boat's systems operate properly, for example. I have designed many of the circuits and in some cases, tested them on a temporary "breadboard" basis, just to make sure that the ideas work. However, I am yet to build any of the final units for installation in the boat. These are things like the bilge blower controller, the steering joystick controller, rudder position indicator and the ballast tank managers. The big one, more recently, is the Engine Control Unit (ECU) for the fuel injection system. The unit comes as a kit and has just arrived, having been ordered in May. It is a plain, unpopulated printed circuit board together with dozens of little plastic bags of components and, yes, you get to build it yourself. My background is electronics engineering, so that's not such a daunting task. However, it still has to be done and the daytime temperature in the workshop being in single digits makes it a less than appealing prospect at present. This is a hobby, right? The "plug" for the rudder mould is finished with all its Plaster of Paris filler, which is now sanded and sealed with epoxy two pack paint. Plaster of Paris is mixed with water, of course, which is fine except that when it was finished, given that it's the middle of winter, it wouldn't dry completely. So, as an improvisation, it was wrapped in an old electric blanket and left for a couple of days. I measured the final temperature in the middle of the blanket at 40C, which is astonishing! However, it certainly was dry! The next part of the rudder making process is to build a frame for the plug so that a fibreglass cast can be made of exactly half the rudder mould's thickness. It is then turned over to make a cast of the other side, which, in a perfect world, would be exactly the same - yeah, right! Once the two halves of the mould are finished, the stainless steel frame can be inserted between the two pieces and the final rudder cast as a single piece. The rudder stock (Stern Pintle) has long been installed in the hull, ready to have the rudder mounted to it. There is a cast aluminium quadrant mounted on top that carries the cable and drive chain connecting the rudder to the electric motor that provides the steering. The quadrant is keyed to the shaft with a Woodruff Key, but it turns out that when it was milled, it was not quite at the correct angle. I knew about it, but it was made so long ago, I had forgotten. However, the effect is that the rudder now moves to a greater angle in one direction than the other - not good! The correction is really quite simple. The rudder travel is limited by two timber stops installed under the quadrant and by simply cutting 50mm off one of them, the rudder can now move to the same angle in each direction. It is true that the maximum angle of travel is now somewhat more than was originally planned (about 35 degrees each way), but, ultimately, that may be a bonus. Since the construction of the rudder is well under way, it highlighted the fact that the rudder mountings were not finished. The top mounting or stern pintle, is fine but creating the bottom mount or Heel Pintle, was another job I had been putting off for some time (read - "years"). The heel pintle is provided by a 316 stainless steel skeg fitted under the hull that extends aft, past the end of the box keel and the propeller. It is a massive section of "U" channel that is 40x75mm with a wall thickness of 5mm, about 1670mm long. It weighs over 10Kg and is designed to protect the rudder and propeller from contact with the river bottom, snags and other hazards, such as ferry cables! The skeg is fitted to the bottom of the hull with six 10mm bolts and three coach screws. The bolts are screwed into matching steel butt plates with captive nuts, inside the aft ballast tank. The butt plates will ultimately be glassed over as well, to seal the whole structure. However, the bolts should still be removable from outside, should that ever be necessary. The problem is, of course, that since the boat is resting on wooden blocks, just 45mm above a concrete floor, the mounting holes cannot be drilled from below because there's not enough room. So, the holes had to be drilled from above by careful measurement, using a spirit level and a plumb bob - not only very tricky to do, particularly in the confined space inside the depths of the aft ballast tank, but certainly not a recipe for extreme accuracy! The solution was to drill the holes significantly oversize (25mm), which was accurate enough, then with the skeg in place and long pieces of all-thread rod in the bolt holes, cast epoxy liners in the holes in the hull to bring them back to the right size. Sounds simple if you say it quickly! The bolt holes had to be sealed with epoxy to protect the end grain of the hull timber anyway, so it turned out to be a good solution. The all-thread rods were covered with candle wax and, using twin lock nuts, were ultimately quite easy to remove from the epoxy. The bedroom has a dressing table area and I had always proposed to put a large mirror on that part of the wall. (I'm not sure why now - I certainly don't want to see myself!) However, whilst roaming the Big Green Hardware shop one day, I spotted a sale of mirrors. One in particular caught my eye as it had indirect LED lighting around the edges and was able to change brightness and colour! It was also cheaper than a plain glass mirror would be, so it has now found its way onto the boat. You can never have too many gadgets....
2 September 2021	I seem to be running a bit late with the monthly report. I'd like to be able to blame the pressure of work, even boat building, but none of that is true. I have had to go to a couple of appointments, a birthday lunch and a funeral, but these are the normal background activities of retired life and should not really intrude. Still, some progress has been made! I had miscalculated the required length of the bolts to mount the skeg and had to order another set. (The new ones are plain shank, 316 SS bolts, 10mm by 60mm long). These duly arrived and the skeg is now fully installed. The upper and lower rudder pintles align nicely too, which is a significant relief, because having to make any corrective adjustments at this stage would have been a major drama. The rudder mould plug has been used to make two half moulds in fibreglass. The new outer moulds fit together like a clam shell and will be used to cast the final rudder unit with its stainless-steel frame embedded inside. Having a properly calculated aerofoil design, the rudder should reduce drag and cavitation and be significantly more efficient than a plain "barn door" style would be. And so it should be, given the time and effort that has gone in to making it! With the skeg in place and the rudder on the way, it was time to finally clean up and install the propeller. The thread on the end of the propeller shaft had to be dressed with a needle file, since it had become a little damaged, so down among the dust and spiders again for a little fine filing. The Morse taper section of the propeller, Woodruff key and shaft were all liberally coated with Duralac before installation. Duralac is a special grease, laden with barium chromate, which helps prevent corrosion when jointing dissimilar metals. It is expensive but should make the removal of the propeller much easier in the future, should that be necessary. The propeller is second hand and was made by Halvorsen in Sydney. It is 18" in diameter and has a pitch of 15", which is just about perfect. When the engine is running at 1500rpm the boat should be making about 6.5knots or 12kph. The lovely bronze bullet shaped nut, hand-made by CEA so long ago, was then fitted, finally, and the locking split-pin installed to finish the job! It was reassuring to note, in passing, that the propeller shaft still turns freely which means that the hull has not sagged (hogged) or otherwise deformed over time, which may have changed the alignment of the shaft with the engine and gearbox. The propeller shaft was deliberately made long enough to allow space between the stern gland in the hull and the back face of the propeller to conveniently accommodate a marine anode. Anodes are necessary to stop galvanic corrosion which occurs when dissimilar metals are immersed in an electrolyte, water in this case. Corrosion is unavoidable but it is far better to have it attack a sacrificial, easily replaceable and relatively cheap anode rather than the very expensive bronze propeller. Anodes are generally made of Zinc or Aluminium, but their effectiveness varies with the conductivity of the water and particularly whether it's fresh or salt water. Since the boat will only be used in relatively fresh river water, a zinc anode would not be especially effective, and magnesium becomes a better choice. Anodes come in a variety of shapes and if the hull were steel and therefore conductive, a solid block bolted to the hull would be fine. However, with a wooden hull, a solid anode shaped like a doughnut, that clamps directly around the propeller shaft, works best. I had naively assumed that a solid magnesium doughnut shaped anode would be readily available, but not so! Resorting to eBay (as you do), there was not a single source in Australia or, surprise, surprise, even in China for that matter. I did find one eventually, however, in Latvia of all places. So, the order is placed for a solid magnesium anode with an internal diameter of 30mm, and an outside diameter of 60mm and a thickness of 15mm (up to 22mm would have been OK). I note the dimensions here so that I have a record for the future when I have to order a replacement. They are sacrificial and it will be interesting to see how long they last in practice. I have mentioned many times throughout this tome that I hate painting. However, eventually it can't be avoided and now that the forepeak hatches are finished, the anchor locker needed re-painting in places to cover the work of fitting the hatch frame. No-one will ever see it, but nevertheless, it has to be done. It was also a good opportunity to finalise the wiring for the bow lights and secure it all in plastic conduit. The anchor itself can now be loaded aboard and stowed in its final position under a false (and easily removable) floor in the anchor locker leaving a space above which then doubles as a storage area for bow lines. The gas bottle locker, similarly, had to be re-painted where the hatch frame had been installed. The wiring for the gas isolating solenoid and empty gas bottle sensor was also placed in conduit and properly secured. Monday, August 30th, turned out to be a significant day because it was then that the boat was finally lifted on to its wheels. A suitable jinker has been made for some time and consists of timber sleepers across the under-side of the boat and steel beams fore and aft to keep it all square. I'm not sure how much the boat weighs, although it should be about four tonnes if it is to float to its marks and whilst the wheels don't have any ratings shown on them, I suppose we'll find out if they are up to the job in due course. The hull was lifted under the outer corners of the transom, with a jack each side, to install the rear set of wheels and then under the forefoot at the base of the stem post for the front wheels. There were no alarming groaning or cracking noises during this process, so the hull didn't seem to mind too much - well not audibly, anyway! The propeller shaft still turns easily, too, so the back of the hull hasn't moved either. All of which is a significant relief! The boat's first journey was to move ahead in the shed by a whole 500mm. This was necessary so that I can get access to the transom to glass and paint it. For thirteen years, it has been so close to the doors of the shed that it has been inaccessible, which is what happens when you build a 37' boat in a 40' shed! However, all big journeys start with a single step - don't they?
30 September 2021	The transom is now glassed with 450gsm bi-axial cloth and finished with Peel Ply to leave a smoother finish. After a fair bit of sanding and filling, the first coat of epoxy Hi-Build undercoat was applied. More sanding and filling and then a second coat. The transom is now ready for its glossy topcoat of sparkling white. There has been some concern and debate about the best way to paint the boat. I had always assumed that spraying was the best solution, however, there are alternatives. Spray painting is a nuisance because to achieve a decent finish, you have to be good at it - and I'm not. Spraying also involves a lot of masking to prevent overspray and shed cleaning to avoid dust contamination. I do have access to all the necessary equipment, so that, at least, is not a problem. Whilst scouting YouTube for ideas, (as you do), I was impressed by videos of people using a "roll and tip" approach. The idea being to use a roller to apply a reasonable thickness of paint and then a good quality brush to lightly "tip off" the finish to remove the stipple pattern left by the roller. The trick, apparently, is to use a different paint mixture on the brush, one that has had at least 40% thinners added to it. The thicker paint from the roller creates a reasonable coating depth and the thinner paint from the brush creates a better gloss finish. Sounds good in theory! I thought I would experiment on the transom since it is now ready, however, common sense intruded and suggested that it would be better to start with the back wall of the coach house, directly above it, first! Paint drips always fall downward and so a good rule is to always start painting at the highest point. (Been there, made that mistake...) The back wall of the coach house has been ready for its topcoat for some time, so a light sand with some 240grit paper to de-oxidise the surface of the undercoat, and it was ready to go. It was also a great opportunity to try out the newly selected brown colour (AS2700 - X53, "Golden Tan"), which I hope will look a bit like varnished timber from a distance. (If you can't manage the real thing - cheat.) I used a foam roller to start with, but quickly realised that it doesn't hold enough paint to create the necessary depth and decided that next time, a short nap Mohair roller might be better. A top quality 75mm "Tipping" brush was bought especially for the job and, being expensive, will have to be cleaned and re-used - something I don't usually do; I'm more into disposable brushes... However, yesterday, the back of the coach house was painted using the "roll and tip" method and immediately afterwards, it looked pretty good, but it's not dry yet! I'll let you know the result after checking in the cold hard light of day... There have been other painting activities this month. The insides of the foredeck lockers are finished as previously mentioned and the four across the aft deck are now finished as well. These are two lockers for removable fuel tanks and two for storage of mooring lines. I had cast a notch into the corners of each of the rope storage hatches so that they can still be closed properly with the rope "half in and half out" as would be normal whilst moored. It then occurred to me that the forward rope locker should have the same facility, so it was duly removed to the bench for modification. Of course, the hatch frame needed to be changed, as well, to match and then both bits painted - again! The manufacture of the aerofoil rudder continues. The two "clamshell" halves of the rudder mould have each been waxed and used to cast their respective halves of the final rudder. All the parts were then reunited and sanded for a good fit and a series of holes drilled around the rim of the moulds for locating bolts to ensure that the two halves would end up being joined correctly. The stainless-steel frame was aligned in one half of the rudder and glassed securely into place. A thick mix of polyester resin, bulked-up with talcum powder, was then piled up and the second half lowered into place. The whole thing was squeezed together and secured with the locating bolts to ensure the proper alignment was retained. A number of holes were drilled in the surface of the now joined rudder halves and the interior spaces filled with expanding polystyrene foam which proceeded to ooze from every possible hole and gap. Fun, but a really messy business! The newly joined rudder halves were then sealed with epoxy and fibreglass tape around all four edges and the flat surfaces glassed as well. All that remains is a final sand and some paint. What a job... However, the result is highly satisfying. It is a great shape, very streamlined, and has a really solid feel! And so it should - it weighs in at a hefty 14.5kg!
31 October 2021	The next step for the rudder was to paint it. Simple, you might say. Well, yes and no. Being the first underwater part of the boat to be completed and ready for final painting, it raised the issue of what to do about antifouling. Stopping marine growth on a boat being used entirely in a freshwater environment is a different proposition than for one that will be used in salt water. In common with so many other aspects of boatbuilding, there is not just one solution. In fact, you will get as many suggestions as the number of people you ask. Everyone has their favourite solution and some people, more than one. Not much help, really! There are three basic approaches. The first is to use a paint that is laden with chemicals, including copper and a variety of biocides, that are decidedly unloved by most marine life which are either killed directly or at least persuaded to seek a home elsewhere. The paint is fairly soft so that it wears away relatively quickly exposing new and freshly poisonous layers of paint over time to keep the bugs at bay. It is very effective, but it has two disadvantages. The first, because it is soft, means that it wears away in a relatively short time and has to be replaced regularly, perhaps annually. This can be a lot of work and expensive. The second issue is that because the paint is continuously leaching nasty chemicals into the water it is not so kind to the environment. Indeed, in some places, it's use is illegal for just that reason. Simply being illegal doesn't entirely stop its use, of course... The second approach is to use a very hard and shiny paint. It still contains many of the same chemicals but doesn't leach them into the water nearly so quickly. Also, because it has a more slippery surface, marine growth has significantly more trouble adhering to it anyway. It is perhaps not quite as effective but lasts much longer before it has to be reapplied, it can be cleaned relatively simply between repainting too, and is much kinder to the environment. This is the approach I have adopted for Rhapsody. The undercoat is "International Interprotect" and the antifoul is "International Ultra 2". These paints are not cheap, but they should last a number of years before having to be replaced. I take the opportunity to thank David Brown, from GDB Services, for taking the time to provide a lot of very helpful advice and for supplying the paints, too. Thanks David! There are some other antifouling options, such as "do nothing" and simply clean the hull every year or two or when the level of growth actually starts to slow the boat down - if that's of concern. Another approach is to use ultrasonic sound. As an engineer, it does have some appeal for me and it may be something worthy of an experiment or two in the future. It's the same technology as is used in jewellery cleaning machines and by your dentist too, for that matter - when you have your teeth cleaned! The rudder is now undercoated and painted a deep aquamarine blue because, apparently, weed growth occurs less with darker colours and it might not show the "fouling" quite as readily. There will be other areas of aquamarine blue on the boat too, so it becomes part of a theme perhaps. The rudder is now permanently fitted to the rudder stock and the lower pintle is also bolted in. The upper bolts are wired to prevent them coming loose and the bottom bolts are secured with Nyloc nuts. It is nice to note that the rudder stock, fitted into the hull so many "moons" ago, aligned perfectly with the lower pintle. It means that the whole rudder assembly is completely free to move from lock to lock without any hint of binding. This is just as well, really, because a misalignment being discovered at this late stage would be a major problem to correct. Phew! Given that the rudder will be driven by an electric motor and a joystick control, it has to move very freely to ensure that the motor is powerful enough to actually operate it. The motor is an 80watt unit, which means its output is about 1/10hp, and it has an inbuilt 25:1 gearbox. That equates to 2.5hp at its output shaft which then goes through another 4:1 reduction at the rudder quadrant; that suggests that 10hp, or so, is available to drive the actual rudder shaft. It should give a lock-to-lock transition time of about one second. We will see if that's enough over time. Whilst the rudder has been the subject of a lot of work in the boatshed, a digital electronic rudder position sender has been built at home. Using Hall effect diodes and neodymium magnets, it seems to work very well - which is nice. The whole thing now has to be encapsulated in epoxy and then installed. The LED dashboard display unit has been started but needs a bit more work yet. Some time back I bored you with a detailed discussion about sacrificial anodes. It turns out that zinc is best for boats used in sea water whilst magnesium is a better choice for fresh water. Anodes are often bolted to hulls but in a wooden boat that involves additional internal earth wiring and more holes in the hull, which is not so desirable. The alternative is to use a "doughnut" shaped anode, in two halves, that clamps around the propeller shaft. I couldn't find a supplier in Australia, or even in China for that matter, however, a company in Latvia had just the thing. It turned up recently and looks pretty good. It is designed for a 30mm shaft and, given that Rhapsody's shaft is 1.25" or 31.75mm, it needed 10 minutes in the lathe to turn it out to the right size. I'm a commercial skipper on the Murray River and mooring the bigger boats is often easiest by sending a Forward Breast Line ashore first. Such a line is secured on a cleat about one third of the way down the length of the boat from the bow. Once that line is secured, the boat can then be manoeuvred fairly easily. Rhapsody is 37' long and, given its shallow draft, may be a bit of a handful to moor if it's windy. With that in mind, I decided to fit an additional cleat to the Starboard side deck, just outside the main entry door, for a "Forward Breast Line". Conveniently, this is adjacent to the helm position, and I can see that being able to throw a rope ashore without leaving the helm position might be very useful when we will normally only have a two-person crew. The cleat chosen was a six inch "pop-up" style which means it retracts into the side deck when not in use. I'm hoping that this will stop it becoming such a "trip hazard" as any other design would almost certainly do. It has now been fitted to the side deck, and reinforced underneath, ready for some serious mooring loads. I am still trying to find the best way to paint the boat. I am reluctant to spray it because of the need for masking, the shed being really dusty and the fact that I'm not very good at it. I have tried using a brush with gloss paint that is thinned by about 40% as an alternative and the results are quite promising. However, I am painting dark brown over white primer and gloss paint doesn't actually cover all that well. That's not really its role, so perhaps it can't be blamed. I have now obtained some brown tint (Thanks David) and will apply another layer of undercoat, suitably tinted, and try again. All very time consuming and frustrating. Grr... It has always been the intention to have a "rubbing rail" around the perimeter of the boat and it has to be installed before I can paint the sheer plank. Rubbing rails protect the boat from mooring mishaps which do occur, as I know only too well! In times past, old mooring lines were attached around the outside of the hull to make a "cushion", or fender, to protect the boat from contact with docks and the like. What was good enough then is certainly good enough now. I was fortunate, some time back, to obtain many metres of second hand 32mm polypropylene rope. A "U" shaped timber moulding, made of a hardwood (Kapur - I think) recovered from a demolished building, will be attached to the upper edge of the sheer plank and the rope glued into it. The timber is all cut ready to go. The attachment of the rubbing rails is also important because the extra 50mm thickness brings the side decks out to their planned final size. Quite some time back I bought a 3D engraver, ostensibly to make engraved signs, switch panels and the like, however, other options have since come to mind. I have some coasters with the Rhapsody logo on them and it occurred to me that I could have the same logo on the front of the coach house showing the boat's name. As we know, one thing often leads to another and the idea of an engraved name board, lit from behind with LEDs, was born. Some special acrylic sheet that is designed for making illuminated signs was obtained and the extraordinarily long-winded process of engraving was started. There was quite a lot of trial and error involved and the final result took almost three hours to produce. However, it looks terrific. The logo is oval which, of course, requires an oval frame in which it can be mounted. The first effort was cast in fibreglass but was not so successful. Nor was the second. However, the third frame, simply cut from two thicknesses of plywood, was much better. Then, of course, an aluminium surround was required to hold the engraved plastic piece in place and the whole thing then glued on to the front wall of the coach house ready for painting. It will have LED strip lights inside and will certainly catch the eye! Over the top, perhaps? No, of course not; if you're going to show off - make a job of it!
26 November 2021	Much of the activity in the last couple of weeks has been around the side decks and making some final decisions about the rubbing rails mentioned above. (More properly called Rubbing Strakes). A rubbing strake usually surrounds the hull and is made slightly wider than the maximum width of the boat so that it becomes the first point of contact when mooring against a dock or quay. It is designed to protect the hull from any damage that may occur during the mooring process itself or from rubbing against a wharf whilst moored, hence the name. Since rubbing strakes can sustain damage over time, they should be readily replaceable - which, in practice, is easier said than done. Given that the boat is very nearly ready for final painting, it is time to consider in more detail, exactly how the proposed "removeable" rubbing rails could be made. After several cups of tea, it became clear, that making them as one, or more, removeable units was not simple at all! The rubbing strake consists of a solid timber rail with a deep rebate to allow recycled 32mm polypropylene mooring line to be securely inserted and retained in the recess. Given that the rope will only be glued into place, it can, therefore, be replaced fairly easily, should the need arise. The conclusion was that the timber portion of the rail could actually be a permanent fixture. Well, that makes things easier! The original idea was always that the rubbing rail would be mounted at the same level as the side decks which had the incidental benefit of making the side decks appear wider, which is really useful. However, if the rubbing rails are to be permanently attached to an already undercoated and sanded area of the hull, then that paint has to be removed. And, taking a coarse sander to the beautifully prepared fairing and undercoat, and removing it, was seriously frustrating, to say the least! The rubbing rail was never going to be made from a single piece of timber. It actually consists of an upper and lower "cheek" spaced apart with laths of plywood. This was necessary to allow it to follow the contours of the hull. When it's finished, it will have the form of a "U" shaped channel on its side, with the rope glued into the rebate. SikaFlex make an adhesive that remains flexible when it sets and that will be used to attach the rope. If a section of rope does need to be replaced, that can be done without removing the woodwork. The "cheeks" are made of a hardwood called Kapur which should tolerate a fair amount of abuse. Bending Kapur, as with any sawn timber, can be a challenge and this job was no exception. However, previous experience gained whilst making the hull made it a little easier. The shape of the bow section of the foredeck had already been changed significantly to accommodate the boarding ladder turntable and extra shaped filler pieces were required to fair that change into the line of the new rubbing strake. A tedious business, but it has come out quite well. Oddly enough, it now follows the line that I had always planned for the bow but could never get quite right. I mentioned previously that the propeller, and its anode, have been fully installed on the shaft at long last. So now, it was time to finally connect the other end of the shaft to the gearbox. The propeller shaft has identical Morse tapers and Woodruff keys at each end. This allows for it to be removed and swapped "end-for-end" should that be necessary. This can occur if the Stuffing Box seals are allowed to score the shaft. Modern PTFE seals have been used, so this shouldn't happen, but it's nice to know that a solution is available. It is also worth noting that, because the engine is offset from the centreline of the boat, the shaft can be removed without taking off the rudder. That's sheer luck, but it may be useful in the future to someone - other than me - hopefully! The gearbox end of the shaft, with its Woodruff key inserted, was installed and liberally coated with Duralac to prevent corrosion. The remaining bolts were tightened to complete the installation of the shaft. It's pleasing to note that the alignment of shaft and engine hasn't changed whilst the boat has been up on blocks, since it all still turns quite freely. The shaft is attached to the gearbox via a PolyFlex anti-vibration coupling. Since the coupling is made of plastic, it does not conduct electricity. So, if the sacrificial anode is to work properly, a means of earthing the propeller and shaft is required. Many boats use a carbon brush arrangement, but in this case, a flexible woven copper earth strap was made up and bolted across the plastic coupling. This ensures that everything is earthed back to the engine block, which forms the central earth point for all of the boat's systems. The fuel injection control unit (ECU) is now fully built and those parts of it tested so far, seem to work properly. I noticed that it has provision to accept input from an Inlet Air Temperature (IAT) sensor, but the system previously taken from the donor vehicle didn't have one. I suspect that IAT sensors have only come into common usage more recently. So, another trip to the friendly wrecker's yard to locate a suitable IAT. I found one on a 2008 Holden Astra, which is also made by Opel in Germany, as is the remainder of the fuel injection system, so it should be compatible. And, having tested it on the newly built ECU, it seems to work very well. It tells me that it's 28 degrees on the bench today and confirms that Summer is on its way.
26 December 2021	The design and process of making the Rubbing Strakes is described above, in some detail. The boring, and very time consuming, part of the exercise, which has fully occupied last few weeks, has been to make and install all the components right around the hull. Twenty-two metres of it in all, of course! Still, that is now all done but, of course, the process of filleting, glassing, cleaning up, sanding and fairing the new timber, ready for painting, is a joy yet to come. Oh, and installing the 32mm rope as well. Speaking of joy, and today being Boxing Day, 'tis the season to be merry. However, the Christmas season is very hard on boat building time. There have been all those Christmas lunches and dinners to attend, presents to buy, catering preparations to make and the like, all of which eat remorselessly into the available boat building time. However, microscopic progress still occurs, albeit irregularly.
31 January 2022	Welcome, dear reader, to a new year - although it doesn't seem to be much of an improvement on the last one as yet, which is a pity! We are still battling various Covid restrictions that seem to change by the hour as if the Government can't decide whether to listen to advice from the health professionals who want to stamp Covid out altogether, business leaders who just want to make profits regardless of how many people die in the process, or its own advisors who are more concerned with simply getting it re-elected at the imminent State election. However, the up-side for me is that Covid hasn't actually affected the fairly solitary process of building a boat at all, thus far. The adding of the rubbing strakes to Rhapsody's hull has turned out to be a much more tedious and time consuming business than I had imagined and has fully occupied the past few weeks. And for my overseas readers - (yes, there are one or two), Summer in Adelaide is not such a good time to be working in an iron shed. When the outside temperature is in the high 30s (that's almost 100 degrees for you guys), the ambient temperature in the shed can be within sight of 40C degrees. This is not only a most unpleasant environment in which to work for humans, but most epoxy and polyurethane products become positively traumatised and unfriendly as well. The "Pot-Life" for epoxy glue, for example, at that temperature, is just 10 minutes, if you're lucky, and because it's exothermic (generates its own additional heat chemically), it can actually become too hot to touch in just minutes. However, the rubbing strakes are now all made and installed, and have been reinforced with a single layer of 200gsm fibreglass on all sides. John Lennon said that "Life is what happens to you whilst you're busy making other plans" - how true! Today would have seen a few jobs completed except that the local electricity authority decided that it would be a good day to install a new transformer in the street and so they cut off the power, without notice, for the whole day - it's a conspiracy! Applying fibre glass cloth overhead is a messy business, too. It drips glue everywhere both down the sides of the hull and down the arms of the hapless boat builder. It also leaves a large number of dribbles and "dags" that will have to be sanded fair - again - ready for painting. I have taken to masking off areas that are likely to suffer, but it's a pity I didn't think of it earlier! Building the new fuel injection computer system (ECU) is now complete but setting it up requires a comprehensive "Test-Bed" to be available to make sure that everything works properly on the bench before it ever gets installed in the boat. The first step is to be able to "fool" the electronics into thinking that it is actually connected to a real engine. Normally, the ECU links to the engine via the existing ignition system in the distributor. This provides the ECU with a string of timing pulses that tell it both the current engine speed and mark each instant when the fuel injector nozzle is required to supply fuel. (I'm not changing to computerised ignition, so I don't need a "Top Dead Centre" indicator). Modern engines don't have "points" anymore; they've been replaced with solid state equivalents of various types. Rhapsody's engine is from 1965 and it's big, simple, and very under-stressed, which is ideal for my purposes. It's also simple enough for me to recognise all the components and possibly fix them on the "run", if necessary. To create a fake "points" signal for testing purposes, I decided to use a real distributor body, with its points, driven by a small, variable speed, electric motor, as if it were really in an engine. To complete the illusion, I added a standard coil and even a spark plug so that the fake points electrical signal was as close as possible to the one that can be expected to come from Rhapsody's engine. The whole test set-up was built on a plywood board and my friend christened it - "The Sparkerator". Thanks to Kevin for the loan of the distributor too - even if it is from a Chrysler! One of the problems with using any electrical signal from an engine's ignition system is that it is usually subject to immense amounts of electrical interference and its voltages can vary wildly. This is not good for the sensitive ECU circuitry, so some conditioning and filtering of that signal is required before it can be used. I have designed and built a circuit to do this based on an Opto-Isolator that electrically isolates the engine from the ECU. The Sparkerator's first important job was to test that circuit and make sure that it works properly. I recently purchased a tachometer for the dashboard, and it is interesting to note that it didn't work properly with such an old engine as is fitted to Rhapsody. So, the Sparkerator has already justified the effort required to build it by allowing a small filter circuit to be designed and built just to get the tachometer to work properly! As previously noted, the rubbing strakes are in the form of a "U" shaped timber channel that will have a 32mm polypropylene rope inserted to do the actual "rubbing". The size of the slot in the rubbing strake has been made slightly smaller than the rope diameter, to ensure that it is a very tight fit - the down-side is that the rope is quite difficult to install. To help things along, I made a special installer tool that consists of a timber block with a slot that is somewhat smaller than the rope, but deeper. So, the rope can be squeezed into a slightly oval shape which can then be hammered into the slot in the rubbing strake. It then becomes a very simple job to install the rope and ensure that the very tight fit is achieved. Ultimately, the rope will be glued in as well, of course, but the tool works so well, it almost seems unnecessary...
25 February 2022	The rope installation tool mentioned above worked tolerably well, however, after a few minutes testing, the design for a MK II, improved, version came to mind. Move on a few days, and yes, that worked much better than the MK I, which is nice. However, it wasn't long before an even better MK III version seemed like a good idea - I'll put it on the list of things to do! I'm hesitant to even mention the rubbing strakes since so much time, effort, and not to mention words in this document, have already been lavished on their creation. However, they are now finished, glassed, filleted and 80 grit sanded ready for undercoating. The new side decks are now as they were always planned to be, that is - significantly wider, and therefore much more comfortable and safer to use. The next job is to paint the outside of the boat - finally! I have discovered with some test painting on the back of the coach house, that brown (tan) gloss paint over a white undercoat doesn't work too well. Pale patches show through where the topcoat doesn't completely cover the undercoat. The simplest solution is to re-undercoat the coach house in brown tinted Hi-Build primer, and re-sand it ready for the brown topcoat, which should work this time. From that experience, it is also very likely that the dark blue hull plank, just below the sheer, will have the same problem so, I will also re-undercoat that area with Hi-Build, tinted blue this time. Complete re-finishing of that panel is necessary anyway because of the installation of the rubbing strakes along its top edge. One of the evening jobs recently has been to design the dashboard layout. This involved a comprehensive audit of how many gauges and switches I have actually proposed in the wiring plan for the boat, and how many of those really need to be on the main dashboard as opposed to somewhere else. There are some "idiot" lights destined for the sundeck helm position as well and they had to be identified. Counting the number of gauges that needed to be accommodated was quite straightforward, but then the issue of the number of warning, or pilot lights had to be considered. Obvious candidates were ignition, oil pressure, engine temperature and so on. The less obvious ones included warning lights for the levels in the fresh and black water tanks. Separate warning lights are also provided, for example, for the muffler temperature and the petrol vapour "sniffer", together with a number of other aspects of the boat's operation. The style of mounting and more particularly labelling of the pilot lights, has been given some thought. I have purchased a 3D engraver and it seems that a plastic panel with a legend for each light engraved on the underside might look good. I have made a couple of test panels to see if they are going to be "up to the job" and so far, they look great! Another necessary addition, of course, is a panel light dimmer control for night cruising! I now have a printout of the proposed dash layout on the desk for "subconscious consideration", hoping that over the next few weeks I will spot any obvious omissions before I actually commit to making the real thing. This approach has already worked because one evening when it was raining, I realised that I hadn't included a switch to operate the windscreen wiper. So simple - and obvious! And, yes, I do have a horn button!
31 March 2022	We all know that "One thing always leads to another" and sometimes more than one "other" thing! I was reminded of this old adage again this week when I tried to get inside the boat. Because the boat is now mounted on its new wheels, it is 250mm higher than it was and the temporary entry steps that I have been using for so long, are no longer tall enough. Incidentally, it also means that I now have only 30mm between the top of the boat and the inside of the shed roof. No problem, it's all part of the plan - more or less. The design of the temporary steps also has to be changed because they can no longer just be screwed to the boat because filling and painting of that area is underway, and the steps need to be separate and free standing. So, they are now raised by the requisite 250mm and clamped to the side wall of the shed for stability. I'm going to bore you with painting related "stuff" this month because I have actually done precious little else. I've had to suffer, so why shouldn't you? Having decided not to spray paint the boat or to outsource the job as explained above, I've been practising different painting approaches for myself on the back wall of the coach house. Now that I have a fairly clear idea of how I might proceed, the first step was to mask off the area. So, armed with many metres of masking tape and a pile of old newspapers donated by a dear friend who actually still reads them, I set about masking the areas where the coach house meets the sun deck, the roof, the side decks and the forepeak. All around the windscreen frame had to be masked as well. And people wonder why these jobs take such a long time! I've previously mentioned the benefits of using tinted undercoat and have also discovered that not all types/brands of primer can be tinted. After a discussion with the very helpful folk at Lonsdale Paints, I bought 2 litres of SLX Self-Levelling Epoxy Primer - beautifully tinted to X53 (Golden Tan). The plan was to completely re-finish the coach house with the tinted undercoat and then Golden Tan gloss on top. Some of the earlier, less successful, efforts were, somewhat reluctantly, sanded off and two coats of brown undercoat applied with a short nap Mohair roller over the entire area. Each coat was "tipped off" with a brush lightly dampened with thinners, to remove the roller stipple pattern and save any need for further sanding. It made the job particularly tedious, but the result was really quite astonishing. I had an almost gloss-like finish on the primer - amazing! Two coats of two-pack polyurethane gloss followed. Again a roller was used, but a high density foam type, this time. The paint was not thinned but was still tipped off with a brush dampened with thinners as before. As an aside, I also discovered the hard way, that there are two types of thinners, and it makes a difference. One is described as being for brushing and the other for spraying and whilst I cannot confirm my suspicions, I believe the spray version dries much more quickly than the other. The brushing thinners left significant brush marks and runs in the top-coat, whilst the spray thinners did not. Another lesson learned the hard way! (More sanding off and re-finishing - grr!) Finally, after all the working and learning on the fly, the painting of the coach house is now finished, and the lessons learned are setting the pattern for the painting of the remainder of the boat. The masking tape has all been removed and the result is quite good. It is not a mirror finish that one would expect on a car, but more than adequate for my purposes. I have also discovered, to my cost, that it pays to remove the masking tape whilst the paint is not fully cured! Much easier! Another little job that came to the top of the list, whilst waiting for some paint to dry, involved the saloon floor. It was originally intended to have a fitted couch or dinette in the corner and therefore no floorboards were ever made for that area. However, since that plan was abandoned, for reasons discussed elsewhere, there was a hole in the floor which desperately needed some floorboards. The area covers the main petrol tank and is quite large so that it needed to be made in three parts. This has now been done so that saloon floor is complete except for the area under the TV. The plan is still unclear for that part, but we'll give it some more thought. (Late Note: more care required! It turns out that the centre floorboard was designed and made without considering the clearance required below the floor for the fuel tank filler hose to be installed. Oops! However, it is reassuring at some level, to discover just how difficult it is to separate glued timber parts, even though the glue has only been curing for a couple of days. Tough stuff, this epoxy!) Fate does smile on one's endeavours occasionally. Whilst browsing a local Cash Converters store without any boat related intentions in mind, a bright shiny thing caught my eye. It turned out to be a second hand UV water sterilizer. This is something I had once considered for the boat but deemed it too expensive at over $400! This unit was complete with most of its fittings, including a working UV globe, selling for $62. A bargain! A small realisation occurred over a cup of tea the other day, that with the addition of the rubbing strakes on both sides of the hull, and on the bow, the boat has now grown! So, out came the long tape measure to confirm that the new length is 11.16m and the beam is now 3.26m. (That's 36'7" x 10'8" if you're old like me). And, as we all know, size matters...