Sabtu, 21 Januari 2017

McGuiver goes boat building!!!!

Sunday 16th december 07

Today, I went mad..... In my wisdom I decided FR 14 was going in whether it liked it or now.
No crane, nobody else but the boys. so the gentle art of "McGuiver" came into play.


Step 1. Load heavy Frame onto truck tail lift.



Angle it upwards and drag it onto the scaffold tower


Roll tower to bow and shove it onto the tops of the hull.

Now, this piece has to be fitted by dropping it straight down onto the centre piece to support it.


Build the above contraption form whatever is to hand. and attach a 250kg wire winch to make a crane (we use these for lifting lighting gear. )


Add a 5yr old boy to press the buttons.. explaining the dangers and how much is "a little bit" ....


Voilla... Dara does a great job.



Fitted like a glove.
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Jumat, 20 Januari 2017

Lots To Blog Today Busy Busy Busy

Well what a busy day.

First I brushed off the roof that was gritted yesterday.  I think the pictures say it all.


 
 Im very pleased with the finish, paint it next

Then I set too with gritting the port gunwale.  I had previously marked the line so this morning it was masking.




The masking and shaping took about 2 hours believe it or not, this was shown live on the new Live Stream at the top of the page.  More on that later.

All then needed to do was to apply the paint and grit.  


This time course carborundum

Later in the afternoon my brother turned up to add some more stone surfaces to the boat.

The first job on this was to make a support to take the cantilever of the breakfast bar.  This was done about a week ago in preperation.


First I drilled 4 x 20mm holes in the work surface and made some hooks from 10mm studding.

 The hooks then passed in to the holes


The hooks were then used to anchor down a length of 4 x 2 which was also glued down.

So all that was left to do was put the stone on.

Cladding

Then a pre-made ply infill was screwed onto the the surface of the cladding.


On to which the top surface and the finished breakfast bar was glued.

Da Dah!

I have to confess to breaking a bit of the thin cladding.  But my brother managed to re-join it and it wont even show. Clever sod!

Then to the bedroom. 

Cimstone (man made stone)
with mother of pearl & tigers eye flecks

There is one of these each side and there will be some upstands to be fitted later.


And so the the Live Streaming.

This is my iPad which Ive made up a holder for it and mounted it on a tripod.

 Camera side

Screen side


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Helm

Now the pram cover is in place I have got round to fitting the helm.  Ive had all this for ages but needed to wait :-(



Ive had the helm wrapped in carbon fibre.  I think it looks pretty cool.

Also installed are other controls and gauges.  These are inside the boat.


From top to bottom:-  Water tank and waste tank gages, remote for the generator, Victron inverter/charger remote control, Victron battery monitor, bilge pump control.

All the window liners are  now in, as are the bedroom and bathroom doors.

Lounge port side

One of the port holes and the bedroom door

Bedroom starboard side
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Kamis, 19 Januari 2017

Its War On Mozzies

Why should we swelter with 26c -30C heat in the evenings when we have windows that are fully removable?




S-Line Window

Well until now its because the mozzies win. We shut all the windows and suffocate. You see, we are unfortunately, the type of people that come out in massive lumps when bitten.  So its WAR!

First off I made some fly screen replacement windows with the help of my friends with a CNC router.  They cut the frame parts for me, all exactly the same of course, scanned from a pane of glass then modified to suit.



The mesh is the same material Tutus are made from I think its called dress net.  This was doubled up .


If you look closely you can see the Moire Pattern 



So now we are sitting with a nice cool through breeze with one of these each side of the saloon and just in case any pesky mozzies do feel lucky we have a death chamber waiting.



Should we still manage to get a bite we now have one of these each as well which we tried at a friends boat and they really work!


Amazon link




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Rabu, 18 Januari 2017

A Bit More Rudder

This is the rudder progerss so far.

 The bottom bearing cup and spiggot

 Using coins to give the right spacing for welding

 The space created for the weld

The plate welded which bolts on the bottom of the rudder

Disassembled

The rudder mounted ready for the
rudder shaft to be connected at the top
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Minggu, 15 Januari 2017

New Welder

Needless to say, a steel boat needs a bit of welding... ok tons of it.

I came across Hennessey Welding Supplies in Google and rang them.

The boss man was a pleasure to deal with and on Weds October 24th I went to collect it in Cork.

Lovely people to deal with and got a great new welder for the job.

It is more than capable and has a remote wire feeder. The total length from main unit to torch is 9 metres.
This will make life much easier as the inside of the boat will be hard to move around.






Many thanks to Jim and Owen.

Link to them on the links section.
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Sabtu, 14 Januari 2017

Sound System Sorted

Bose 235

Its very clever, and the sound........... Well its just unbelievable.
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Kamis, 12 Januari 2017

A really good way to spend the morning

Readers of our book will certainly be able to relate. We had a great morning, today, helping to change the Annie Bucks summer configuration to her winter configuration. It starts with a ride to the public wharf, where there is enough space to maneuver. The ride, on a perfectly cloudless day, with temperatures at right about 70F, was gorgeous. The trees are just starting to get color now. Just enough to add highlights to the woods behind the marshes.

The process is much like an old barn-raising and although it involves a lot of heavy lifting and potential injury, I look forward to it every year. Five of us disconnected and lifted the summer canopy  (PP. 77, figure 12 in "Fundamentals...") from its supports and onto a trailer, where it was driven to its winter storage place where we placed it for safe keeping. I dont know how much it weighs, but its certainly in the hundreds of pounds, if not a half-ton, or so. We went to the wharf in the shade, but when we were done removing the canopy, the Annie Bucks cockpit was wide open and full of light. It makes her a whole different boat.

That was the first half, and actually the easier part, of the process. We then had another beautiful boat ride to another local dock where her mast and boom were stored. The mast and boom are required in oystering when dredging or patent tonging (pp. 76  figure 15). The mast is made of iron and its a good thing that most of the guys lifting are watermen - they are extremely strong from the work that they do. Getting a long mast (25?) onto a boat when you have to carry it on a narrow dock (3) can get you knocked into the water very suddenly. Once the mast is aboard the boat, it must be mounted to a support plank, then made upright and then secured with wire rope and turnbuckles. The various lines that hold the mast in place have to be tensioned exactly right, the consequences potentially being life threatening. The booms installation must wait until the mast is ready. Otherwise there would be no place to install it and it would just be in the way. The boom is mainly aluminum, but also hundreds of pounds and long. Still, carrying it is much more pleasant than carrying the mast was.

Im always amazed at how these guys work together, all of them knowing exactly what needs to be done, because they all have the same kinds of boats and after the Annie Buck is squared away, the group will move on to convert the other boats. David has a lot more work to do before he can work with his rig. There are all sorts of lines to inspect/fix/rig. He has to hook up various hydraulic lines and other elements of the system. Hell need to install his culling board. He is gearing up for the work of winter. That means making sure that his engine and everything else important to running the boat is in perfect shape.

Nobody could do this work alone. Its an honor to participate, knowing that my contribution to the effort is minimal, but I always learn things and the rides on the Annie Buck, to me, are worth every bit of it. I look forward to reversing the process in the Spring...
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Door Furnature

I had a call fron the wood shop to tell me he was ready for the door furnature. So I thourght Id go to a local long established iron moungary store.  My needs wernt difficult, or so I thourght.  I wanted some 3" polished SS hinges, and a SS rebater door lock.  All they had was tat, the hinges were so bad IMO it was a waste of SS and no rebated locks at all.  This is supposed to be a specialist shop.  I then went to B&Q, Homebase and Howdens.  In 2 of these the concept of SS seemed to be alien.  They did a huge range of nasty plated stuff, but not a whiff of SS, and as for rebate lock......Well?  Howdens did have some very nice SS hinges but they wanted over £13 a pair and that was on my trade account!

I resolved to go on the net. I like to support local shops where possible, but they really have to do more.

A Net search turned up a company called e-Hardware  Absolutly brilliant!!  and the even better part quite local to me and were happy to indulge my fussyness in person.  In the end I got EXACTLY what I wanted and even some concealed  door latches I didnt even know existed.

So, excelent quality products, brilliant service and great prices......... How great?  Well the exact same hinges that I liked at Howdens were at e-Hardware for £3.50

I will post pics of this stuff when I get the doors.
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Rabu, 11 Januari 2017

More Step Work

Ive been modifying the steps in the boat.  This came about at the front because the water level sender gauge needed recalibrating now its on the water.  Previously it was done when it was on dry land during the tank testing etc. It was necessary to remove the front steps to do this and a timely visit from Graham of Matilda Rose fame made the calibration easier as he called out the reading as I twiddled with the adjustment screw 45 feet away.

While I had the steps out I decided to make the top and bottom step liftable as well as the middle one which was already done.  Then it dawned on me that I could take the ply floor out under the steps and and have a cooler area to draw cool air from the bilge when its warm in the bedroom.  A quick temperature check revealed the base plate (black area) was 12.5 degrees while the inside of the room was 23 degrees.  I also changed the 5 micron primary water filter which was visibly quire grubby.  Next time the tank is empty I will move the main stop cock as removing the floor has made more room to position it in a better place right out of the tank.


Then it was on the the rear steps.  For ages now I have been intending to fit the rest of the of the tiny LED plinth lights. This has made such a difference to the appearance of the kitchen area and of course the steps.

Without Flash

With Flash

I am undecided about taking the floor out under the rear steps.  It would make a nice
pre- cooling area for beer and wine, but as the inverter is now under them this adds heat and makes the box area quite warm so I thinking this might be a source of condensation. 
I will consider it again one I have put some additional fans in the side of the steps to dump this heat out.
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Little Bit Of A Setback

Ive had a little bit of a setback of late, Ive been watching it hoping it would go away, but as its getting colder its getting worse.

So what is it?

The laminate flooring I used to line the ceiling is distorting. I suppose as the boat gets a tiny bit shorter.  Essentially is compressing and was beginning to ripple midships.  Other option is that the laminate is expanding with the damper weather.

Normally when you lay this sort of flooring its know as a floating floor because its not fixed anywhere and a 10mm gap is supposed to be left all around the edge of any room its laid in to allow for expansion etc.

Compounding this also is:- 1. I have had to glue it to the roof batons to keep it in place. 2. on the port side I did the whole boat in one continuous length of about 12.5m.  Its only this part thats distorted.

The planned repair is underway and involves removing the affected mid section and cutting in a expansion joint above the bedroom door separating the run.

So this is what its looking like.


I shall leave it a couple of days for it to normalise, I have cut some more of the glue to free up more movement.  Then it will be all put back up again and hopefully that will be the an end to the matter.
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Selasa, 10 Januari 2017

The 8th Annual CBMM Maritime Model Boat Expo May 19 20 2012

We do several shows every year. Although we are in the "business" of making model boats, not all of our shows are expected to be major selling events for us. Why would any business person say this? The making and selling of custom scratch-built model boats is definitely a niche market and for us every time we display them in public is an element of the marketing process. We like to say "sowing seeds". The fact of the matter is that there are very few shows with clusters of people of whom we can expect to commission a serious model boat then and there. For most people, commissioning a model is something that requires consideration.This is as it should be.  For this reason we do shows over a wide geographical area and our website is very important in helping us to sow those seeds to people the world over.



Some shows have other, different, benefits for us. As you might imagine, working on hundreds of very small pieces constantly can sometimes get draining. There are some shows that we go to in order to become energized. Not everyone realizes, when they see a model, that a large part of making it happen is art. Art is a large part of our lives and even though we are not painters, sculptors, or jewelers, per se, the things that people do in those other arts are the elements of what we do. In addition, just being with people who do what they do, whose philosophies are to do the best that they can, in whatever their discipline, is good for the soul.

I will tell you honestly that for years we had stopped doing what were referred to as "model shows". People thought that we were crazy for this. "Youll sell tons of models." The fact is that model shows are not a great place to sell models, if that is the primary goal.

With age I find that doing shows in order to get energized and to spend time with people with like interests and skills is not a bad business decision, when you compare it to continuing education credits required in other disciplines, or various conventions or meetings - It makes you better at what you do.

We had stopped going to model shows, because, at the time, we felt that they were not a place to make sales. Perhaps, for the reasons stated above, we should have looked at other benefits to be had.



This weekend we will be at The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum for their Annual Maritime Model Expo in St. Michaels, Maryland. We went last year and realized what we were missing when we got there and saw some of our old friends such as Jean Preckel, Jim Wortman, members of the Museums Model Guild, members of The Washington Ship Modeling Society (I know that I dont have the name exactly right), as well as meeting several new ones. There was a model of a skipjack that the builder had been working on for 27 years! The guys from Washington are working with ever new techniques and are delving farther into the reaches of maritime history to find more interesting subjects to model. Other model makers had beautiful and unique display ideas. There is also a "lake" set up for R/C and pond yachts and these guys are having fun!.

So, just as some shows energize us in the realms of the arts, this is a show that energizes us, because it has so many people with the common interest of making model boats. Of course you have the various factions R/C vs Static, scratch-built vs kits. It doesnt matter. They are in for the love of it. There are experts in all types of model boat making and youll find novices and the masters masters. I recommend that you come to this show. Well certainly be there...

More infomation here: http://cbmm.org/modelexpo/index.htm

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