So, to bring you up to date I'll try to be brief & fly through the last few week's activities.
The first step was to generate some cash for the project. I achieved this buy selling my poor little yacht (a 23ft monohull) that needed way too much work. Having learned by bitter experience that monos are not the go for me, my local waters or my wallet, I have decided that I must go for the multihull(s) anyway. As my work shed was full of junk, I also offloaded some of that & chucked out the rest (how I love you oh world of Ebay).
Ah, that's much more betterer. My Brother-in-Law was kind enough to pass on a bunch of tools (including lots of power tools) and another metal bench, which has proven to be really useful. The rudder that you might've noticed in the last photo belongs to my 14ft surfcat, which I've nearly finished doing up and will also be sold to bankroll my boating nonsense.
Next, I needed to clear out a long abandoned & overgrown jungle down the side of the house, where I could set up a temporary shelter for the build. This was a proper bastard of a job & I cleverly chose a couple of the hottest days possible for the task. The space isn't ideal and the ground is pretty broken up & sloping but it's about the best available option that I can see for now.
Next I stretched a 20ft x 10ft heavy duty tarp accross the area, to provide pretty basic shelter. It took some working out and I had to rework the setup a couple of times when we got some heavy rain but now it seems to drain ok, although it is still a bit exposed to the North & North Easterly winds so the rain can still blow in. Just have to wrap another tarp around the job & hope for the best I guess.
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Once this was all done, I was ready to actually make a start on the boat itself. The official commencement date for this build was Monday 25th January 2010 and what an exciting (& daunting) day it was. With some trepidation, I trotted off to Bunnings for my first bit of wood (19mm ply for the strongback) and some more tools.
As soon as I got home, I launched straight into measuring and cutting out the bits for the strongback.
Over the next week or so, I managed to sort out and assemble the strongback. When I was a kid and did Industrial Arts at school, I used to have my own brand called "RAG" (Rough As Guts). Let's just say that I hadn't yet understood the value of standarised educational environments, nor the concept of "Pride of Workmanship".
In any case, I didn't really spend a lot of time cleaning up the edges of my cuts with the strongback. Conscious, however, of the importance of a sound & accurate foundation for the build, I did at least try to ensure the top surface of the box section was as straight as possible.
When it came time to take the newly assembled strongback around to my "boatshed", I was really worried as to how I was going to get the setup straight and level, especially given the cracked, sloping concrete floor. I attached the uphill leg (carefully measured to provide the recommended ideal working height of the assembly), then my daughter & I carried it to it's new home. Once there, we temporarily propped the downhill end on a ratty old sawhorse, one of whose legs had rotted away so much that it didn't even touch the ground. To my amazement, when I ran the spirit level all over, everything was perfectly straight & level. What a fluke! I quickly measured off & fitted the other leg and removed the "calibration sawhorse".
Feeling very pleased with myself, I then happily say in my shed cutting out the templates for the station molds. I did have grand intentions of lofting all of these drawings myself but luckily sanity prevailed & I bought the propper plans instead. The hardest part was convincing myself that I really didn't need to have a beer whilst doing this activity (sheds are so cool for a bloke to hang out in).
Today I sussed out how to fit all of the templates into one sheet of 12mm ply. Once done, I used spay adhesive to stick them down. They didn't stick as well as I'd have liked (I was trempted to paint the whole sheet to provide a better surface), but hopefully it'll be good enough. The white triangle in the far corner is Stern Stem template, which will have to be glued to the other side of the ply.
Today I sussed out how to fit all of the templates into one sheet of 12mm ply. Once done, I used spay adhesive to stick them down. They didn't stick as well as I'd have liked (I was trempted to paint the whole sheet to provide a better surface), but hopefully it'll be good enough. The white triangle in the far corner is Stern Stem template, which will have to be glued to the other side of the ply.
So there you are. Up to date. I intend to post after each day's work from now on, so you won't have to wade through loads of stuff each time. Due to the usual commitments, I can't work on this project every day (unfortunately), but I will do so every chance I get. Hopefully the gaps between sessions won't be longer than a few days, but I guess we'll see how it all goes.
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