Companionway

4th July 2010

221 days

The seven week gap since the last entry reflects the increased amount of running around, design work and organisation that fills my time on top of the four day building week. So not enough time to update the blog, but needless to say plenty has been going on and good progress made.

The picture shows the companionway that Mark has been building in his workshop which has now been put in position. It's a masterpeice of joinery in some of the reclaimed teak.
Going through the companionway we now have steps going down onto the engine box and another couple fom there to the sole. These are all made but out for painting and varnishing at the moment.

The cockpit has also progressed. The teak has been bonded to the glassed ply and then the seams have been filled with sikaflex and sanded back. The cockpit well has been painted in two pack paint so that it won't need repainting every couple of years. The backrest will be varnished, the seats and the capping will remain bare. (see pic in deck gallery)

One of the jobs we're leaving until next winter is the navigation station so we've built a temporary one in plywood for use this summer (see interior gallery). Chart table seat and mounting boards for instruments and switch board etc..

With the exception of the spars most of the woodwork has been finished and we've moved on to the metalwork stage. Last week we cut the stemhead fitting, stem band and keel band from a sheet of 8mm steel. We borrowed a plasma cutter from Dan Harding (thanks Dan ) for the cutting and this week we'll be welding them up and sending them off for galvanising. Some other fittings we'll be fabricating from mild steel others we're having made by Richard Hingley, a blacksmith, who has already made the chainplates and deadeye rings. More pictures of these when they return from the galvanisers.

Getting quality timber for the spars has been a bit of a problem but we have some douglas fir being delivered tomorrow which should do the job and work will begin straight away on the bowsprit.