Monday 18 March 2013

A Bucket-full of photos

Bucket (aka: Judy Roberts, Xena crew) sent along some photos of our last Saturday's "Over the Wall" manouver.  I thought of putting them in the post before this, to get them all in one place, but that'd make rather too many photos on one post, so here they are, a bit of overlapping from previous post's photos.
Thanks to Bucket -- seen here, left, cropped from a photo on Saturday, getting ready for the big lift...






Here Bucket's photos:
Better photo of the boat than mine.... The yellow line on the rudder is the
water line (DWL = "Design Water Line")

Saturday 16 March 2013

Allez Ooop... over the wall and off to the Yacht Club...

Today was get the boat over the wall day.... Some photos....

In our backyard. Tiller dry-fitted. Ready for popping over the wall.

Looking pretty racy!  But she ain't... she's heeeavy....


Noel and our "Wall-jumping Jig".  Thanks to Steve W for the idea.

Marcus supervises making path for the boat to the wall...

Arlene with Marcus and Basil: respectively Chief and Deputy technical advisers....
In the yard, before the troops descend....

..... and here they are, the "Wall-jumping crew":
L to R: Arlene, Peter S, Kevin McL, Chris, Kevin D, Ian,
Fat Chan, Win, King, Rocky, Peter C, Paolo, Noel (obsc), Bucket, Wolfie.

Wofie and Paolo looking critically at something... I think it's the gudgeon
& pintle, which are not correct, I know: just there to fit the tiller.  This pair was the
only one in Hong Kong.  I have a set of three on order to fit later.
First move of the boat: off the cradle onto the ground for a rest...
L-R: Wolfie, Paolo, Bucket, Peter S, Chris, Kevin D, Kevin McL.

Another rest stop.  Boat has been turned around, facing wall, while we
position the cradle on some supports ready for the final push....
Kevin gives an early -- premature? -- "V" sign..
Others: Ian (obsc), Peter S, Kin, Fat Chan, Kevin D, Bucket, Benoit,
Kevin McG, Peter C.

Allez oop!... Chris, Fat Chan, Kevin D, hold balanced while rest of us run
around to the other side....

.... keep holding her fellas!  Just a bit to go... Chris, Kevin D, and Pete C....
we'll rush round to the other side....

... and here we are... the other side, ready to ease her down...
"Wall jumping Jig" making sure she doesn't tip over...
Remind SS builders:  the paint-work is not to the waterline;
will do final painting to DWL, more varnish coats, at the Club

Made it!
After a march through the bushes of the public Central Park at Siena One.
Sitting in her cradle by the roadside, waiting now for the crane-truck.
Rocky, Kevin McL (obsc), Paolo, Peter S, Chris, PF, Ian, Pete C, Kevin D, Bucket,
Benoit, Kin, Wing, Wolfie, Fat Chan, Noel.

Kevin and Lucas, giving the thumbs up

From my study, Gabrielle peeks out from the roadsides through the bamboo..

Crane Truck, with wireless controller.  How cool is that!...

Crane truck, lifts Gabrielle and cradle, easy....


Bye bye Gabrielle.... sniffle, sniffle... sad to see her go....

A big "Thanks" to all who helped out on the move over 
the wall: much appreciated!
After the move above, beer, bubbly & pizza on the newly-cleared back yard.  Pleasant day and feeling of achievement all round as the task was completed with relatively little hassle.
Now to make the mold for the lead keel/ballast and to find a boom and mast for the sloop rig...
Comments from the day:
From Paolo, a boatbuilder of yore: "The most impressive thing about this, is that you finished her!".  Not quite finished yet, Paolo, still have lead keel to pour, and mast to find...
From Wolfie, wooden boat owner & restorer: "You did a pretty good job, for a first boat."!.... [Later: Yes Wolfie, which is why I'd rather like to build another! Especially I'd like to have another go at planking -- where I made the biggest errors on this one -- to get the spiling, and plank dimensions closer to ideal. Related: I'll to do a "Lesson's learnt" Page (aka "mea culpa") in due course]

On another tack....
From Benoit: "It looks like you bought her, new, from the shop."! [Thanks Benoit, sweet, but not quite... I wish!]

At 4:10 pm, today: message from Noel: "... the boat is in the boatyard now."
And here she is...
And here she is, amongst friends.... back of the Ship Shop, RHKYC.

Friday 15 March 2013

Catch up photos, before we jump the fence...

Nikki in the background.  Our constant companion on the build

We needed a bit of carpet to protect the hull when we
put it over the wall tomorrow.  We didn't have any other
than our Persian rugs, which I didn't think Jing
would be too keen on our using.  Then Arlene found a nice
piece in a neighbour's rubbish...  The dogs rather like it too...

Noel usually works on our Xena, but she's on the Hard stand, so he has time
to help us out on Gabrielle.  Here he is working on the tiller hole through
the transom.  This was a touch of a hassle.  If any builders would like
my comments on it, happy to provide, just email me.

That gudgeon and pintle at the bottom is not the right
size; we used it just to align the hole for the tiller.
The black line is the Design Water Line.

This evening, hull interior and the hardware installed on the
centreboard trunk cover.

I decided to add a little door to the hole at the back deck


Wednesday 13 March 2013

Hull: part-painted

Photo yesterday
Just to get an idea of the colour scheme, took this yesterday.  The green on the hull is not to the waterline yet: I'll do that when she gets to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, which is this Saturday.  The "Donegal Green" colour was the only Marine Green I could get in Hong Kong, and it looks pretty much like British Racing Green that I wanted, so I'm quite happy with that. [On reflection "Donegal" being a county in Ireland, it's a kind of "British Racing Green"....]
Today we hang the rudder and drill the hole through the Transom for the tiller... A bit scary to drill through the nice Chinese Mahogany transom.....
Managed yesterday to source some gudgeons and pintles with Storm Force Marine.  Not something that there's much call for in Hong Kong, apparently...

Tuesday 5 March 2013

One man's eight-year effort to build a wooden ship by hand

Screenshot, of Johah Eaton's build.  Video here.
An occasional reader of this blog, local mate in Discovery Bay here in Hong Kong, sends me a link to this site, a short video of a Jonah Eaton, who's been building a 42' wooden schooner.
Some of Jonah's comments on the vid will resonate with builders of our much littler Somes Sound:
 "There's no right angles [in boatbuilding]; everything's constantly curving and shifting around on you..."
"Building a wooden boat is about as hard as it gets"
Thanks to PS for the link.