Grinding It Out

Feels like wading through treacle, but we have some more yard labour on the job now and they are ripping through the stripping work. There is a public holiday coming up on Monday, so don't expect to be in the water until Wednesday now.

Decided that the existing bilge pump setup was less than acceptable so we are in the process of installing new pumps and plumbing. Everything else has come together well. Richard and Rick started pulling the prop off today and found that the cutless bearing is shot, so good thing we decided to pull it. Richard has installed the transducer for the new sailing instruments, and we will start wiring things up over the weekend.

So close...!

This is what a teak and cast bronze rudder looks like. Look closely kids, chances are you won't see another.

Wayne caresses the rudder. A man has needs...

Contrast of the new planks with the old planks. The old planking is in phenomenally good condition.

The keel deadwood and garboards.

A Fair Bottom

It's sll sweat and pain as the guys fair the hull. Jon, Wayne and I have been going hard on systems stuff and are almost to the point of running out of important jobs until we hit the water. Still lots of pieces of joinery to try and find homes for though...

Rudder

Further to the shot in the last post of the stripped rudder, have found out that's it's teak. Nice touch.

Turns out that Doheny used to have a separate "racing rudder" that he would have fitted before big races. Nuts.

Hull is Stripped

The hull has been stripped, will be blasted in the morning. Couple of days required for fairing, then painting. So realistically not hitting the water until later next week. Now 2 weeks behind schedule...

Scraping

The yard workers have started scraping the hull. The outer planking that is being revealed is A1.

Jon, Wayne and I have had a productive couple of days, assembling more joinery, getting to grips with the plumbing, and generally getting everything together. Systems wise we have got all important things functional, and are now waiting to go back in the water before servicing the engines and transmission.

Almost There (really)

Started stripping the bottom paint off the hull today. Thru-hulls are in, and Rick has started caulking. Timeline is really now down to the yard staff and how fast they can strip the hull. Once stripped there is a full days work for everyone fairing the hull, then paint and then straight back in the water to go get the spars back in.

The Last Plank

The last plank went on today! Wohoo! The team have already started plugging and fairing, and caulking, thruhulls, etc will be under way tomorrow. The yard should have antifouling under way before end of week, so looks good for going back in the water early next week.

Jon and I have had a very productive couple of days proving systems, and after tomorrow will be down to the things we can only do in the water e.g water makers. Beyond that we are focusing on trying to screw the interior back together!

Update

Finally at the boat! Spent the day going through systems, most things are sound and functional. Spending a lot of time screwing panels back together, so much of the boat has been disassembled.

The starboard side of the hull has all planking on and port will be finished tomorrow. Realistically we are 4 or 5 days further behind than I thought, probably not going in the water until Monday.

Bloody hot!

Panoramic

A couple more panoramic shots from Jonathan.

Update

Rick is calling the 16th of August for splash-down. All planking should be complete by the end of the week, then it's up to the yard to soda-blast the hull, prep,seal and anti-foul.

Jonathan is working like a trooper, and now that the weather no longer blows through the boat he is working on making her liveable again i.e. cleaning the filth out.

As soon as she is back in the water we will be putting the spars straight back in, and Rick and Richard will be finishing off the last layer of the transom - Kamalii was positioned in the yard such that they could not set up scaffolding to get to it. It will be all hands on deck as we do all the systems proving, finish sorting the sails, deal with a number of final jobs, and of course provision for the trip. James is flying in on the weekend of the 11th/12th, and the rest of the crew will be arriving for splash-down. Almost there!

Almost There

The inner planking has all gone on, then all come off again for final finishing, and then gone back on again, and the outer planking is now well under way.

Preparing planks off pattern.

Finished plank. You can see the radius in the cut.

Inner planks being fitted. Note the bedding compound where the strapping is to avoid a repeat of the delignification problem in the future.

Good thing Richard is so tall.

And now the outer planking starts going on.

Outer planks being fitted on the port waterline.