Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Progress, plus a very ambitious voyage.



I’m home again, the little ship here on the river really does feel like home.  Waking in the morning to look out from my bunk and watch the light gradually come into the sky, the stars fade and the reflections on the rivers mirror waters come to life is very special.
The stresses of the world don’t really find their way down here, it’s a very peaceful refuge from the rat race that so drives us all.

So I’ve been working on SEI this morning, put the very first lick of paint on her, well not quite on the boat but at least I now have two coats of high build primer on the daggerboard, , one more and it will be time to sand it off smooth and start the enamel finish coat.


The daggerboard, three layers of 9mm plywood, thats a bit over an inch thick for the metrically unfamiliar.  The plywood I used is odd, does not sand smoothly but leaves a hairy surface so I'm filling it with a high build primer, will warm it in the sun to harden the paint off then sand it again to get a nice smooth finish.
In my bag when I got here I had a little parcel from www.duckworksmagazine.com. It had rudder fittings, a bow towing eye ( U bolt) and a heap of little medium duty eye straps.
These will be bolted to the mast box to take the turning pulleys which will lead the halyard and downhaul back to the centrecase where I can get to them without having to go forward.

The rudder fittings are rather special, double enders not having a flat transom to fasten to means most rudder fittings wont work unless a big block of wood is shaped and fitted for each, and that’s both cumbersome and unsightly.
These though have the transom part oriented vertically so with a little block on each to make a narrow vertical straight base for them they fit beautifully.  The forked rudder stock fittings are wide enough to have a decently strong rudder and stock, and the pins being separate with split rings to secure them make fitting them to the curved stern stem easier than otherwise.  Nice fittings.
www.duckworksbbs.co,/hardware/p-g/weekender/index.htm



The rudder fittings just slid loose onto the stock, a little work to do to get them in just the right place as that stock has internal rope ways built in for lifting the rudder blade up and down.
NICE fittings, I'm pleased.  



Heres a pic of the towing eye being fitted to the bow, another Duckworks fitting, that little box was like Christmastime , who needs a tree with sparkly lights, I'd rather admire  the reflection in the shiny stainless steel.  This one is the longer of the two "here"

www.duckworksbbs.com/hardware/shackles/sd080285-8

A while back a charity organisation in Ireland bought some Joansa plans, had ideas of doing some youth training and teaching boat handling.
Their ambitions have grown, the boats are working well and they’ve decided to do a marathon row right around Ireland and Eire, that’s about 1000 sea miles that they have to cover, if they can maintain 4 knots, that’s ( counts on fingers, shoes off so can go past 10,)  250 hours pulling hard. Possibly twice that with slower speeds, harbour entrances and headlands to contend with.  500 hours rowing, 2 months at least. Blisters! No wonder the Vikings were tough.
Well done guys,  I wish you all the very best.



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