Deck Carlines

I have now fitted the Deck Carlines and am busy with planing them down to the correct position as well as planing the sheer in order to fit the side decks. The piece of timber which I cut the carlines from had a curve, which I left, as it saved having to shape the carlines to take the curve of the deck. Note the bulkhead which was temporarily in place has been removed in order to fit the Carlines.

On Monday I took delivery of my final batch of Marine plywood from Roy and Jean at CKD Boats. This will hopefully be all that I need by way of plywood in order to complete construction.

Stateroom Aft Bulkhead

The aft Stateroom Bulkhead has been cut and dry fitted. This will only be permanently fixed in place once the floors have been done and the deck carlines installed.
The next task will be to install the deck carlines and then the side decks. This will then allow the removal of the pine spreaders which are now getting in the way.
The most recent photographs on the blog have been taken with my new Canon EOS 500D camera, which Jay gave to me in return for re-tiling her bathrooms and installing a new bath. It is really nice to have a "real" camera again, although at the moment I am still using it on full auto until I go on the free course in August.

Work Table Extensions

One of the biggest problems building a yacht singlehanded is that often the scale of the work is too great for one man. Fortunately I have a very good friend, Theo, who has helped me in the past on jobs such as laying up the keelson which required large amounts of epoxy being mixed and used before it went off. However it is not always possible to have him around as he has his own family as well.
So when it came to having to rip a very large plank into smaller sections I needed to be able to do this on my own. This neccessitated having to make extension tables for the table saw, which I will also be able to use on the router table and the work table.

Tools and Jigs

Over the past few months I have spent quite a bit of time sorting out and re-arranging my workshop, so I think it is a good time to share with you, some of the tools and jigs that I use. Some of them are home made to suit particular phases of the work on Tididi.

Unfortunately I do not have fancy and expensive machinery and have to make the most of what I have, which neccessitates having to improvise a lot of the time. One of the First jigs I made (pictured above), was to cut scarf joints for the planks used to laminate the Keelson. Essentially it holds the timber at the correct angle and then has a carrier for the router which can slide from side to side on the carrier, while the carrier can move back and forth along the length of the scarf. Although this was for wide planks, it also came in useful for the stringers as a number of pieces of ttimber can be inserted side by side and all scarfed at the same time.

More tools and jigs to follow soon.

Time to start Blogging again

I am the first to admit that this is something I have not been very good at for a while. Although things have been moving slowly as far as the yacht build is concerned they have been moving non-the-less. Time and money dictate the rate of progress.

Since my last post the chain locker has been completed as well as the sail locker although the bulkhead for this has not been permanently fixed as I am first wanting to finish the "Stateroom" bulkhead so that they can be epoxied in at the same time. The blocks around the edge of the bulkhead are temporary to hold it in place while applying epoxy fillets.

I have also since ordered the mast as a kit from Roy Mcbride of CKD boats. This is a "Birdsmouth Mast" in wood which Roy supplies as a complete kit, minus tracks etc, for self assembly. This works out far cheaper than an equivalent alloy mast.

More to follow soon as I am now busy with the "Stateroom" bulkhead.