Marc

Finally decided on the paint system I’m going to use and actually committed to ordering it! We’re going with PPG Sigma. SigmaCover 280 epoxy primer for the basecoat and Sigmadur 520 for the topcoats. Its less than half the price of the comparable yachty branded paints but heavily used for commercial shipping so if it’s good enough to protect steel…[Read more]

Making good use of the last nice day for a while, some slightly rustic jigsaw work but will be hidden by the surround so didn’t feel too compelled to re do it, few things left to do before the chain locker is finished but nice to add a bit of boat for a change. I warmed the resin over the kettle in the end, really helped with the wet out!

Hurray the new toy has arrived! Going to spend a while getting used to it before committing to the prop shaft but as you can see in the video it chews through 316 stainless without any issues, that was a 1mm cut on carbide insert tools (the smoke is the coolant). The picture is aluminum so if I make a mistake threading it won’t break anything…[Read more]

Ahhh the joys of restoring boats! I cracked the old cutless bearing off the propshaft to measure up for the new one and it turns out the old one has somehow expanded and coupled with debris has done a splendid job of lapping a significant amount of the propshaft. After weighing up the options and given that there are a number of boat projects that…[Read more]

Evening folks! Stage 1 of the motor mount is in! The eagle eyed among you will probably notice the bearing is slightly off center… Like I said, nothing on this flipping boat is straight! After running the numbers I’ve decided to run a belt reduction the ratio will be about 2.3:1 which will sit cruising speed right in the middle of the motors…[Read more]

Evening folks and welcome to the newbies 🙂 progress has been a bit sporadic recently with a lot of bouncing between different sub projects as weather permits. I’ve had a lot of things to iron out with the electric drive so I’ve been spending a lot of time in CAD land trying out and stress modeling various ideas before buying the parts I need to…[Read more]

Cardboard stem head fittings are vastly under rated! What could possibly go wrong? This is the rough template that will be drawn up in Autodesk Fusion 360 and laser cut from 3mm ply to make templates for plasma cutting in 5.5mm 316 stainless steel. Should be a fun little side project

It’s taken the best part of the day but the frame for the new hatch is now curing to the deck, cutting the hole was a little nerve-racking but learnt that it’s much better to trim with the router and a flush cut bit, then it’s a good soaking of penetrating epoxy to seal the wood and fair it to the deck. The final finish won’t happen until I’m…[Read more]

Sodablasting is super satisfying if a little messy, nowhere near the abrasion you get with crushed glass or oxide media, but nice and gentle on the aluminium window frame and 100% biodegradable.

Evening folks, whilst I’m sat waiting for the latest round of epoxy to do it’s thing I thought I’d do a little update! So here’s the template and build of a little cuddy to sit behind the anchor locker, it also provides some strength to the bow in the area the windlass sits, the eagle eyed among you will notice that I changed my mind halfway…[Read more]

Achievement unlocked: bow repairs finished! Next up… Chain locker *removes epoxy hat, dons wood working hat* (you need a lot of hats for this refitting lark)

Evening folks, well if you hadn’t guessed the weather has been somewhat hampering progress recently. Unfortunately the work that needs to be done to go forward needs the humidity and temperature to behave itself for a few days and that just doesn’t seem to be on the cards at the moment! I’ve mostly been scribbling down ideas for the cabin layout…[Read more]

What a marvelous birthday weekend and an excellent way to get this season’s rebuild started in splendid fashion. The final bits of bow core are in and ready for glassing next weekend, if you asked me 5 years ago what I’d like for my birthday, 30kg of west epoxy probably wouldn’t be on the list. Hope everyone had a great bank holiday, more updates…[Read more]