Jump to content

40+ tonnes of Boatshite - engineshite update 9/5/20


coalnotdole

Recommended Posts

Where did you learn your woodworking skills?

I guess i learnt basic woodworking from my mother who used to do maintenance on the boat we had when I was a small kid. Other than that I've just picked it up as I go along really - I'd never used a router or even an angle grinder prior to buying this boat! all my tools have been acquired since getting the boat. I'm by no means a shipwright but am confident enough to do most things. I've done a fair bit of repair work to other wooden boats commercially now - all using skills picked up from doing my own boat.

 

 

Am I right in thinking these bunks are below the waterline and if so, does it get pretty cold in there as a result?  I've often wondered about the practicalities of living on a boat all year round, I imagine it's pleasant enough in the warmer months but not so nice in the winter.

Spot on! - the waterline is pretty much level with the top of the bunks. Wood is a better insulator than fibreglass or steel so the heat loss/transfer isn't too bad. the bunks/lockers obviously help to insulate the cabin too as you have a locker full of crap between you and the water outside. The solid fuel range keeps me comfortably warm all winter (sometime too warm as I have had the windows open with snow outside and been sat around in just my boxers inside!).

 

I think the biggest heat loss on my boat is through the windows and cabin sides, theres such a large area of glass that you do end up with condensation dripping off of them if you don't have the heater on. Bit like a car really!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mini update of a few exterior bits that got missed out of previous posts:

 

Hatch retaining Stanchions: the one on the left is original and the one on the right is a replica fabricated by me to replace a missing one. Hard to tell in the photo but the main upright is tapered which cost me a fair bit getting it turned on a lathe. 

165.jpg

 

Detail of the top drop-pin, original on left, replica on right. all cut out of steel plate by chain-drilling and hand hacksawing/filing!:

166.jpg

 

Detail of base - the bottom flange was the only part of the missing one I had so I reused it.

167.jpg

 

Showing a smaller stanchion in situ:

168.jpg

 

And one of the two in the first photo (don't ask which one!) in situ with the hatch opened:

169.jpg

 

 

When I bought the boat a whole load of the handrails were missing where the previous owners wheelhouse had been. Theyre formed out of 1" tube and little cast steel stanchions like this one:

170.jpg

 

 

I was missing about ten of them, after looking into getting replacements cast(££££s) I eventually managed to fabricate near exact copys using the top part of much larger stanchions we had knocking about at work and 8mm steel plate bases which have a machine screw up the middle of the stanchion and are then welded several times to produce a radius. A lot of work but I hope you agree thayre worth the effort:

171.jpg

 

 

And finally new stainless steel pad-eyes fitted to the life-float holders, just need some nice lines splicing onto them now:

173.jpg

 

Cheers

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And then there were two....

 

Absolutely fantastic thread, I'm new on here so I hadn't seen it before but well worth the hour or so it took me to read it. There's lots of threads on here I look at and think "yeah, I can do that" but this one? Pfft, no way! I know my limitations...

 

It must have been a bit butt-clenching not knowing the state of the hull to start of with, I'm not sure if you had a fairly good idea about it, or if it was a case of every time you turned up to work on it you thought "phew, still afloat!"

 

Keep up the good work!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Small update of work in progress on the Lighting/Flag Mast:
 
184.jpg

 

 

 

The mast came off the spares boat but had suffered a lot from bodging when a previous owner had moved it from the wheelhouse roof onto the cabin.

I've made up new stays as they were missing and repaired the mast step as well.

 

The mast originally fitted to my boat (which was removed and scrapped by the previous owner) would have been smaller than this one but as its such a nicely made bit of fabrication it seemed silly not to use it.

It will have a all-round white anchor light on top and two white forward facing masthead lights on the two brackets on the front (one for normal motoring and the other one as you need to display a second light above and in addition to the normal one when towing)

 

Sidelight boxes need refitting to the wheelhouse roof as I had to move them to fit the stays (I'd fitted them in the wrong place anyway)

Will have to sort out some small pulleys for the signal flags too.

 

185.jpg

186.jpg

 

 

 

Closeup of the bottom of one of the new stays. All fabbed out of 10mm marine grade ally. (correct bolt not yet fitted! )

187.jpg

 

 

 

New section added onto the mast step:

188.jpg

 

 

 

New dated addition to engineroom window:

189.jpg

 

 

 

And a couple of blurry work in progress shots of the hull lining and bunks progressing in the forecabin:

190.jpg

191.jpg

 

Cheers for reading!

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally a few more photos showing the completed slats above the bunks now with all of the custom made cushions in place. In the future It will hopefully get some shelving / storage units fitted just below the deck beams and possibly a folding table at the forward end. The next big forecabin purchase will probably be on rubberised flooring but its going to have to wait until the money is available.

 

195.jpg

 

196.jpg

 

197.jpg

 

A future project will be completing the galley on the starboard side, this will house the fridge, a gas hob / grill and some food pereperation / storage space. I also have a watertight door which will hopefully be fitted to the bulkhead ( by the the bolt croppers / stack of powertools .) This will allow through access into the engine room, and through into the aft cabin.

 

198.jpg

 

Cheers for reading,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I've been making progress with the large pile of expensive hardwood I ordered a couple of months back

It will become the top part of the transom (back of the boat) and the remainder was to laminate up into two "fashion pieces" these are large curved timbers which bolt to the inside of the transom and also bolt to the longitudinal stringers (in effect joining the back of the boat onto the fore and aft structure of the hull frame)

 

Each piece is laminated out of 21 1/4" by 6" by 8ft laminates using resourcinol glue. I've taken a template off the back of the boat and built a basic jig to get the shape right.

 

 

First 7 laminates glued up and clamped to the jig:

199.jpg

 

 

First fashion piece after removal from the jig and trimming the rough ends off:

200.jpg

 

 

Close-up of the trimmed end showing the individual laminates:

201.jpg

 

 

The rough end after cutting off:

202.jpg

 

 

Template sat on top after a quick clean up with the powerplane (the large plank of wood under the fashion piece is the 5"x14"x8' section to go on the top of the transom):

203.jpg

 

 

This shows the fashion piece in its correct orientation after running it through my thicknesser a few times to square it all up:

204.jpg

 

 

After two years of procrastination I've finally bought the flooring for the forecabin and aft cabin which turned up last week - 1mtr square tiles are quite large!:

205.jpg

 

Cheers for reading,

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've really enjoyed reading all of this. Do you now live aboard? Or is that the overall master plan?

Yeah I liveaboard. There is no overall masterplan really - just carry on spunking time and money on it until its as good as/better than new!

 

 

Can we have MOAR videos of engine running please? Because foden 2 stroke

I haz no video camera and my phone is from the stoneage (besides it'll cost me a tenner in diesel to fire it up!) Next time I stick it on the slip I'll get a video of the engine and boat moving, promise.

 

 

We have an Iron Fairy (1984?) at work which despite being one of few things at the dock longer than me I'm pleased to say I've had almost nowt to do with it. It would seem design and development peaked about 1953, perhaps no bad thing. Pics can be got if anyone feels the Iron Fairy love.....

Ours is a 1977 IF10 but the ten tonne capacity is with the jib right in and lifting over the front. It's good for 4.5ton at a reasonable radius.

 

 

Always a great read mate. Where'd ya get the tiles please?

Ebayz. £20 a sq mtr. Very please with them 4mm thick and very tough/flexible supposed to be £70 sq mtr new. Got to wait untill next payday to buy the adhesive though!

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really impressed with the quality of the woodwork in this, do you use mostly power tools or is a lot of it by hand?

 

Iroko is a real bastard to work with, had to spend days washing and clearing my workshop down after the last time I used it as it would irritate my lungs even with no evidence of dust.

 

Loving the updates.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really impressed with the quality of the woodwork in this, do you use mostly power tools or is a lot of it by hand?

 

Iroko is a real bastard to work with, had to spend days washing and clearing my workshop down after the last time I used it as it would irritate my lungs even with no evidence of dust.

 

Loving the updates.

I use a lot of powertools - power-plane is probably one of the things I couldn't live without, the wadkin table saw in the workshop speeds up cutting half joints for locker doors etc.

I do have a ridiculously large collection of decent British Made handtools as well though - theres no electrical equivalent for a nice set of footprint cabinet chisels for instance!

 

I hate Iroko - spent most of lastnight blowing blood and mucus out of my nose after having run that fashion piece through the thicknesser. Despite its toxic attributes Its a pretty good hardwood for the money so i will be continueing to use it.

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Can haz finally make update?

 

The last post back in january covered laminating up the "fashion pieces" to go on the inside of the transom - for most of the intervening four months they've sat under the bench in the workshop (with just enough sticking out to trip you over)

With some reasonable weather finally here and several (un)subtle hints from my business partner/former boss that he was bored of tripping over them I've finally made a start on fitting them to the boat. This has involved ripping out the cockpit floor and underlying structure to gain access which will hopefully spur me on to fitting the new floor which will be self draining unlike the old one which drained into the bilge.

 

Fashion piece sat in place before any sortof trimming:

tr1.jpg

 

 

tr2.jpg

 

 

tr3.jpg

 

 

I ran them through the bandsaw to roughly cut the bevel:

tr4.jpg

 

 

After some adjustments and trimming:

tr5.jpg

 

 

I'm really pleased with the lamination - the curves match the hull shape almost perfectly:

tr6.jpg

 

 

Other side:

tr7.jpg

 

 

And this is how it currently looks - The fashion pieces need fine adjustment and painting before they're finally fitted, they're in situ at the moment as I used them to clamp the top section of transom which I've just glued in place on tuesday:

tr8.jpg

 

 

Top of transom and fashion pieces - thats a 12" clamp for scale,Ten Inches of solid wood!:

tr9.jpg

 

 

Got to glue a bit in the rebate as the outer board wasnt quite wide enough - the top will then get trimmed to a curve:

tr10.jpg

 

 

 

Whilst at beaulieu autojumble I finally found another length of 10mm stainless wire for my steering cables to replace the shitty steel ones currently fitted - I had acquired enough to do one side about three years ago but had had no luck finding another length:

tr11.jpg

 

 

And at the boatjumble a few months back I bought a bigger searchlight to go on the wheelhouse as the old one off a green goddess was now dwarfed a bit by the new mast:

tr12.jpg

 

Made in bolton:

tr13.jpg

 

Thats about it for structural progress at the moment - will pop a couple of photos of prgress on the galley up later.

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bit of progress on the second half of the galley today - sorry for shit pictures.

 

 

Pile of cut and jointed timber:

206.jpg

 

 

 

Which I've just prepared to the exact dimensions shown on my highly accurate scale drawing:

207.jpg

 

 

Laid out on the workshop floor:

208.jpg

 

 

And mocked up in situ - the Fridge will go in the top right aperture:

209.jpg

 

 

Also made my final bit of floorboard for the forecabin the other week:

210.jpg

 

Thanks for reading/commenting.

 

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Some more progress:

 

Starboard Galley test assembled:

211.jpg

 

 

With gas hob and fridge test fitted:

212.jpg

 

 

 

 

Covering boards fitted around cockpit:

tr14.jpg

 

 

Sides of the transom trimmed and rebated to accept the bulwarks:

tr15.jpg

 

 

And the covering board after epoxy sheathing:

tr17.jpg

 

 

Tiller cutout in new transom top roughed out:

tr18.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

The hatches in the coachroof are one of the things that have been on the joblist for a long time - I repaired all the coamings around the hatch openings and have replaced the hatch staunchions where they were missing but the actual hatches are just too far gone to be worth repairing:

tr19.jpg

 

 

Rather than making them out of steel again I've had them made in marine grade Aluminium by a fabrication firm:

tr20.jpg

 

 

The hinges will be re-used they are riveted onto the originals so they're a bit tedious to remove!, the plan is to bolt them to the new hatches with a rubber insulator between them and the alloy:

tr21.jpg

 

 

Inside:

tr22.jpg

 

 

The handles on the old hatches have always been a bit poor so I'm planning to change the design slightly and also make them out of stainless:

tr23.jpg

 

 

 

tr24.jpg

 

 

 

These are the brackets which the drop pins in the hatch retaining staunchions locate in to hold the hatches open:

tr25.jpg

 

 

I've ordered some stainless angle to re-make these:

tr26.jpg

 

 

Interior handle - I've ordered 33meters of stainless bar to remake these and also to make the bars to go over the cabin windows:

tr27.jpg

 

 

Now waiting for various metal and wood orders to arrive, I've epoxy taped the deck edge where the new covering boards are since these photos were taken.

 

Going to bed now!

Dave

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...