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

Cable locker, no2 battery etc.

Last weekend I sorted through the bag of hardwood trim that came with the boat I found a couple of pieces which would cover the joint between the two sections of the locker panels for the forward cabin, they are of a similar width to those for the aft cabin, however the screw holes are a bit irregular so to be environmentally friendly I have drilled out and plugged the existing screw holes using the offcuts left after cutting the timber to length I am not sure if this is recycling or upcycling either way it saves money. Also since I had decided it was time to fit a second battery I made up  a short piece of 25mm2 cable to form the link between the two negative battery terminals.

Original screw holes

Also in the above photograph is the chain locker door before I added the edge trim.

First thing Monday I gave the deck a good scrub down to get rid of the accumulation of last winters dirt I then finished up the day by cutting to length  some more of the trim pieces for the forward cabin.

I didn't find the time to fit the edge trim to the chain locker door over the weekend so this was the first task on Wednesday morning, once this was complete I was able to trial fit the door. I finished up the day by applying the first coat of varnish to the edge trim.

Chain locker door

First thing this morning I put a second coat of varnish on the chain locker door edge trim and put it on one side to dry. The second battery had arrived on Wednesday so the next job was to get it on board and down into the battery locker and connecting it up, it is secured with a ratchet strap as per the no1 battery, a bit more recycling as these ratchet straps came with the boat and were used for securing the tarpaulins covering the boat just a matter of shortening the webbing. 

No2 battery in place and connected

Once the varnish was touch dry I carefully fitted the chain locker door, it just requires the latch to be fitted before the job is complete.

 

Forward cabin continued

This week has been a bit of a short week work wise as I had a trip out into the Swale on a friends boat on Monday however I did manage to achieve the main aim of the week which was to line the hull sides in the forward cabin. T start with I removed the locker panels and then scraped off the loose flaking paint on both sides before washing down with hot soapy water. Once everything had dried I cut out the lining carpet and glued it up with spray contact adhesive, after doing the starboard side I had run out of 'Trimfix' so in order to expedite the job I picked up some 'No Nonsense' spray contact adhesive from Screwfix, time will tell if it is as good it certainly smelt much the same, we shall see.

Starboard side lining

Once the lining was complete I replaced the front panels and had a good clear out so that the forward cabin looks much less like a construction site.

Starboard side front panel back in place

I have put the old berth cushions back in place for the time being as replacing them is not a high priority at the moment, I usually sail single handed most of the time and there are plenty of other berths to choose from on this boat.

Forward cabin after cleaning up

As can be seen from the above photograph the new cushions will need to be a bit wider as originally the front panels came down to the internal moulding but as outlined some time ago this left an awkward shaped space at the bottom of the lockers so I had previously reduced the front panels. As well as finishing off the cable locker door over the coming weekend I will go through the bag of hardwood trim pieces that I have to pick out some bits to tidy up the front panels. The cable locker door has been painted and just awaits the edge trim which I also hope to fit this weekend so that the door can be fitted next week. New Morning is now beginning to show some semblance of order, there is still quite a lot still to do but it is mostly bits and pieces of detailing, the boat is now perfectly usable.

Back to the forward cabin

I started on Monday morning by trimming off all the plugs in the aft door frame and then trimming up the door frame so that the door would fit within the frame then once I was happy with the fit I secured the door and made a final adjustment to the frame to ensure that it would open and close smoothly. I had to re position the door hold back hook as due to the manner in which I had reinstated the door opening the door was considerably higher than it was originally. I finished the day by stripping and cleaning the original door latch.

The first job on Wednesday morning was to refit the door latch and the new catch plate this entailed fitting a block to the door frame to take the catch plate in a similar manner to the forward door.

Aft door fitted

As with the forward door I have screwed a temporary stop to the door frame to prevent any straining of the frame until the architrave/door stops are fitted, the temporary stop is the small block fitted just above the catch plate mounting block.

I began today by cleaning the inside face of the aft door with acetone which removed most of the odd bits of sticky stuff and left the door looking a bit more presentable once that was done I trimmed the plugs in the screw holes in the catch plate block, this is as far as I can go with the doors until I have obtained the material for the architraves. I then moved on to the forward cabin which was accessible now that the doors are out of the way, I started by clearing out all the rubbish and having a good clean up, the priority is to fit a door to the cable locker to prevent the east coast mud from flying off the anchor chain and spreading itself around the forward cabin which it is prone to do as the chain drop is very close to the door opening. I had cut out the plywood door blank some time ago but that is as far as I had got, so after marking the position of the finger hole I put it aside as a homework job for the weekend when I will sand and paint it ready for the edge trim. 

Door blank for the cable locker

I finished up the day by lining the after end of the anchor well between the two side locker panels using some of the grey van lining carpet.

Lining on anchor well

It can be seen in the above photograph how close the anchor chain is to the locker opening. The aim next week is to line the hull sides in the lockers on both sides of the forward cabin with a view to making it a bit more presentable, it does however need some new cushions to replace the existing rather tatty ones which are possibly the originals also I think that they have suffered somewhat from the attention of rodents while in storage.

I have had the first sight of the new swan family on the creek this week.