19th December 2010

Haven't been down to Sabrina as much as I would have liked to recently due to holidays, this is the first day in over a month and it was a little cold:

Spend a couple of hours tidying up, but after a couple of hours I couldn't feel my toes so had to give up.

17th October 2010

I spent today sorting out the hole in the starboard side and also that side of the cockpit. The cockpit is just a reassembly job.

 

I'm getting to be an old hand at cutting out the rot and replacing it with good timber. The trick is to cut it back to good wood, trying to get it in line with a support timber so that the new panel can be easily screwed in place, where that isn't possible I use hardwood behind to create the support, making sure there is an overlap of at least 2 inches. I coat the timber with epoxy mixed with some filler to create a very thin paste so that when the screws tighten it squeezes out of the ends. I then run a finger over the excess to create a small fillet to add strength and to make sure its well packed in. I then make the new in fill panel and do the same, making sure all the joints are full of resin and filler, making sure the resin is proud of the joint so I can sand it flat once the resin has gone off. It does get kinda messy as the resin paste is very thin and its advisable to wear gloves. Its all held together with stainless steel screws. Once you have got the hang of it its actually very easy and quick to do and it makes more sense to just chop out the rot just to be on the safe side.

   

I also planed off the side timbers for the sliding roof, originally the sides were plywood so overtime rotted as part of the changes I have made to her I have been replacing some of the ply with hardwood to help prevent any future rot.  Thank goodness for the thicknesser planer.

22nd August 2010

It was a nice day weather wise so off with the canopy so I could see how things we going and have a bit of a clean up, shes almost back to bare wood and is looking boat like, the front cabin is all done. You can see the cockpit is almost back together and the rear roof is looking good on its new gas struts.

15th August 2010

What a surprise, more rot, this time its on the starboard side, next to the cockpit. There is a rotten patch on the side, about 6 inches by 2 feet and a 2 foot x 2 foot hole in the bottom.  Out with the plunge saw and the angle grinder.

 

8th August 2010

At last I managed to get round to working on the sliding roof, its not complete but I'm pleased with it so far. All but one of the supporting timbers that make it up was ok so it only needed one slat to be made, however the sides were too far gone so a couple of 3" x 2" timbers and a lot of sanding later and they were shaped.

The original roof was covered in 12mm plywood, but the roof was very heavy and you needed some muscles to slide it, the new version is made of 9mm which hasn't altered its strength but made it a little lighter.

   

By the time I had finihed the root it was getting late in the evening so one of the jobs that needed doing was filling the screw holes where the new roof was bonded to the old one, so 5 pots of epoxy filler later and it looks like the roof is covered in cotton balls.

  

 Its been a milestone of a weekend, the last patch of rot was cut from the deck and replaced.

There are only a couple of minor jobs left to do and that will be all the repairs above the water line complete. Its been a long year so far, but I reckon another 4-6 weeks and she'll be ready to go back on the water.

1st August 2010

I only managed to spend one day on the boat this weekend, but managed to cut out the windows that make up the windscreens. It might look simple, but to cut the first window out took nearly three hours, the actual cutting only took 30 mins, slowly moving round with the jigsaw so it doesn't damage the wood.

The other 2.5 hours were taken up by marking it out, making a template from the old window, making sure its centred.  The window actually gets aligned from the inside as that is the horizontal reference point.  To then transpose it to the outside required me to drill some small holes on the outer edge of the template at the exact middle of the horizontal and vertical edges.  The template can then be ligned up on the outside using those four hours and then the window cut out.

To round the corners off I bought a sanding drum kit that you attach to your drill, then carefully and I mean carefully round the corners as sandpaper on the end of a drill removes wood at a rapid rate of knots!

    

18th July 2010

4th July 2010

Another busy weekend... I finally got round to two of the jobs I really was not looking forward to, in fact dreading! They were cutting the windows out of the front cabin and also refitting the wardrobe in the front cabin. Both I knew would be painful jobs.

I knew that if I cut the windows wrong then it would look bad and there would be little or no way to fix them as you cannot put wood back that you have removed. I spent Saturday making templates out of 3mm hardboard for the front window panels and after some sanding these fitted well.  Once I am ready and happy with them I will bond them in using epoxy and epoxy filler, so that water will never again penetrate the wood.

The old window frames had survived from the front side windows as I screwed those in place and used a router to cut the window, I was pleased with the result and they look like they were always there:

 

I then used the old glass in the front to make some templates for the front windows, but was not happy with the shape when I drew them on the wood so I make some new ones from scratch and they looked a lot better so I cut the holes out. My Dad and woodwork teacher always said measure twice and cut once, so I did.... but I measured one side wrong so the windows were not level, it didn't matter as I was able to enlarge the windows and even them out, quite pleased with the result.

  

The rear side windows were marked out using a long ruler and pencil, I'd marked the panel when I first made it so knew roughly where the lines were. I used the front windows as an alignment so I could get the flowing lines right, then used the frame of the front window as a template to cut the curves out. I need to go round with a sander and clean up the holes, but on the whole I'm more than pleased with the result. It might not seem like a lot of work for a 10 hour day, but I took it slow and steady making sure I got it right.

In that last photo you can see the wall of the wardrobe, it was a pain in the neck to fit, I used the same method as for the windows, cut a template out of 3mm hardboard then cut the main panel out, its now all glued in place so next weekend I should be able to clean it up and fit the rail and also the door jam.  I'll try and get to the boat sometime in the week and nitromors the front cabin ready for the weekend then all I need to do is make the mounts for the windows and then on the Sunday bond it all together.

Sounds simple... :)

27th June 2010

I spent the whole weekend working on Sabrina, the weather was really, really hot.  According to the temperature gauge in the car it was 28'C mid afternoon.  When I arrived at the boat Sunday morning at 8am it was 18'C.

I'd taken the cover off of her on Saturday and managed to not get sun burnt, however it was a close thing so on Sunday I decided to leave the cover in place, but propped the sides open to make a sun screen:

I cut the glass support out of some 1" x 8" hardwood and also the support above the window.  The support for the glass didn't come out as well as I expected so I decided to remake that on Sunday morning, hopefully the pictures below shows that the window looks like it was always there:

 

I've also managed to finish covering the support timbers that I replaced a couple of weeks ago with 6mm marine ply:

I'd been wondering what to do about the hatch at the rear an had been toying with the idea of going to a scrap yard and getting some boot lifters from an old car to act as a lift mechanism as the existing wood and metal supports just were not in keeping with the boat as she originally had a sliding roof.  When I was browsing through the screwfix catalogue I noticed they sold lid stays, for kitchen cupboards so I picked up a pair of them.

They were a real pain to fit, but I managed to get them in place and I am more than pleased with the result:

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a slab of hardwood for the port side of the cockpit, after plenty of time with the thickneser planer she was the right size, a couple of drill holes and some big screws and its in place:

I had a couple of hours spare at the end of the Sunday so I decided to sort out the edging on the roof line where the roof slides closed. Epoxy resign goes off very quickly in the warmth and I do mean very quickly :D

25th June 2010

Spent the evening on the boat, sorting out the new window in the bathroom.  I remember the last time I attempted something like this and it didn't end well. So this time I picked up some hardboard from B&Q on the way to the boat.  I used it to create a template from the otherside of the boat, I took the glass out of the window and pressed the hardboard up against the cutout and drew round it, then carefully cut it out.

I then cut the hole slightly smaller than the pencil line and the sanded it to the correct size, quick run round with a router with a round over bit and hey presto.

I had some spare 8" x 1" hardwood so I used it to create the supports for the glass and also the liner for the window, photos of those will follow tomorrow.

All in all I'm pleased with what I have achieved this evening, especially as I wasn't in the right frame of mind.

16th June 2010

I spent the evening sanding, the new side is looking good and is solid:

I sanded the other side of the hull where I had filled it and also the old timber that acted as the runner for the starboard sliding door, its come up quite well. I'm trying to keep as much of the old timber as I can, but in places its to rotton so has to be replaced.  There should be more photos at the end of this coming weekend.

I was sanding away and kept hearing some strange noises, it is rumoured that one of the boats to the left of mine is haunted and I never thought much of it, but as it was getting later and the sun was setting my mind started playing tricks on me, when I turned round I found the reason for the noises:

I seem to have recruited my own fan club! I'll take some bread with me next time for them.

13th June 2010