Thwarted again

The aim this week was to complete the painting of the deck however I would need some more paint I used what I had and painted the starboard aft deck and the port forward coach roof and after removing the masking tape I went to the local chandlery for some more International Interdeck blue deck paint and yes you've guessed it he was fresh out of stock I could have any other colour but blue. I went back to the chandlery this morning and the promised delivery had not happened ah well see what next week brings. There is not a great deal of deck paint left to do just the port aft deck and the anchor well.

I spent the rest of the week pottering about with various cosmetic jobs the main one was to sand and re coat the coach roof handrails with International Woodskin, I had last done these about three years ago so they had lasted quite well.

Coach roof painting complete

Just the port aft deck left to paint

The rest of the time was spent cleaning up various areas of gelcoat, removing various splashes, paint, varnish, glue etc. Just to end this post I had a visit from Mr and Mrs Swan and family it looked like a preening training session. Apologies for the missing head but the screen on digital cameras is very difficult to see in bright sunlight.

Best laid plans

I started the week by making the two final pieces of trim for the forward cabin and giving them a first coat of varnish. I moved on to sanding the non slip paint on the side decks gave them a wash down with detergent rinsed off and allowed to dry. Once both areas were masked up I painted the starboard side which took me up to the end of the day.

Wednesday dawned wet and miserable so after putting a second coat of varnish on the trim for the forward cabin I pottered about with odd jobs a couple of light fittings needed connections re making amongst other things. Once the rain cleared up and the deck dried out I painted the port side deck unfortunately I did not have time to remove the masking tape which given the time that it has been on will certainly be a bit of a pain to get off.

Today I started by sanding the top of the coach roof and giving it a good wash down then once everything had dried I masked up before applying the non slip deck paint. I tried to remove the masking tape from the port side deck and as I thought it has been on far too long so it will be time consuming to remove.

Coach roof after painting

The port side of the coach roof around the hatch will need to be painted separately as the masking tape is too wide for the narrow strip down the centre.

The deck areas which have been painted now looks much smarter its amazing what a coat of paint can do. To finish off the day I removed the masking tape from the coach roof before it had time to become semi permanent and then fitted the trim pieces in the forward cabin, this is as far as I am going to go in here for the time being, the next project will be to replace the cushions at some time in the future.

Trim pieces fitted

Not much done this week either

I started the week by making up and varnishing some more pieces of trim for the forward cabin this has now been fitted with just two more pieces to make and fit for the forward end where the side panels butt uo against the chain locker bulkhead.

Starboard side

Port side

Ideally I would like put some trim along the bottom of the side panels just to finish them off but I am running out of the original material, I may wait until the aft cabin has been finished to see if there is anything outstanding and then try and source some more if possible.

I went sailing yesterday down the Swale as far as Whitstable, the plan was to go down as far as Margate and back but the wind was gusting up to a 6 and with a windward flog through the \\\\east Swale I turned round at Whitstable and headed back to spend a pleasant night on a mooring in South Deep before heading back to Conyer this morning.

I really must make the effort net week to get a bit more done although most of the major work has been completed there is just really detail work and some external cosmetic work to be completed. I guess a certain amount of project fatigue is making itself felt at this stage of the job

Not a lot to report this week

I must admit to having a bit of a laid back week this week I had a trip out into the Swale on Monday it was almost an overnight trip because I had looked at Tuesday's high water in the tide tables however I just made it back into the creek with the occasional zero showing on the echo sounder. I did include a bit of a safety factor when I set the keel offset into the sounder so it was not as bad as it looked also I think that the sounder signal tends to bounce off the liquid mud interface.

On Wednesday I started by screwing and glueing a timber block to the chain locker door opening to take the fixed part of the door latch and then plugged the screw holes, these just require painting over.

Fixed part of door latch

I finally completed the chain locker door by fitting and adjusting the rest of the latch so that it holds the door shut without rattling.

Door now complete

I finished up this week by cutting the forward cabin trim pieces to length and sanding them ready for varnish which will be this weekends homework project, I really must try harder next week.

Forward cabin trim pieces ready for varnish