Happy New Year 2010

am.... am Hello...
It's kinda weird doing this again. I nearly had to figure it all out again.

Firstly a note to any emails I have recieved in the last few months, replys coming soon...

Ok so update news.. of sorts.

The last update was last april. Its weird to think that amount of time has passed and it seems like nothing happened.
In truth, some problems arose with the final welds on the underside of the boat . Some 400 feet of welds were 95% true. It was the 5% I wasn't happy with. So as I have managed to do everything 100% correct so far. I made a decision to cut out and re-weld all 400 feet of them.. that took all of June, July and some of August. It was a a 3 week job that took 3 months because of wind, rain etc.. With winter on the horizon it was now necessary to house the boat. This as you can see is no easy job. The scaffold is borrowed form some very nice people, the scaffold plastic came in 17 x 10 metre sheets. It took a few weeks but i had if fully covered in september, ready for final sanding, blasting and primer. So I thought....lol...

Early october saw gale force winds that ripped a rather large hole in my plans. In effect I had to cut the roof with a knife at 1am in the morning during a storm.. this left the sides un attached and by following morning it was in an un-recoverable state back out in the rain.

What to so now...


Building the scaffold to make the roof



Structure in place. Cad drawings ensured the scaff was in the right place to meet the roof trusses.



Fully covered and ready for paint..... Not!

Size of a church building.

Aprez storm... sides ripped to bits. roof? what roof!!

Part 2 of this below.

Clonmel Covers made this new roof for the boat.

Its reinforced, takes 2" steel pipes each side to tension it and is secured with webbing every 8 feet.

We hauled it up and over with 3 800 kg winches.



It was supposed to be an 8 man job but I managed this on my own with the boys doing the winch control.

Soon I will have the gables on and get new side plascic and attach it in a better way.

Anybody going the the Excel Boat show London??

I'll be there 11th and 12th.

Update On Water tank

Pictures taken 10-march 2009,

1200Litre Fresh water tank assembly in Eurofab







Under sides all tacked and lined up ok.
I did have a slight error on my drawing and had to fit it somewhat.



Inside ring for access hole (4 in total) with the bolts welded.
All stainless



Strip welding the baffles in place.

As of 10th April the tank is only waiting for the lid to be fitted and some pipework.
All outside welding done.

Finished raised floor

Part of an update,
Pics taken 11th March 09.

Finished new floor height



Centre Girders back in place



New Cut in 1st step to aft cabin, now there will be 4 steps instead of 3 and will be better



Aft Bulkhead getting reinforcing box to carry aft wall

Other side.

Once this was in I re -attached new 50mm angles to the aft wall and cut out the lower origional ones

New Floor height

8th March 2009

Grinding still going on and I have spent a few more days finishing the welding that needed doing
mostly under girders and impossible places to get to and I LEFT THEM TILL LAST...!!!
The outer hull is now fully complete and will only need grinding and sanding before the blast and the primer.

Some months ago I got a reference drawing from the designers showing a particular detail.

The other thing I noticed was that on that design, the saloon floor was higher than mine.

I totally ignored it till the other day. ...Why higher.?

So on friday I looked at it seriously. The other floor was 200mm (8 INS) higher. On mocking up a box and looking i felt it was too high, but the visibility was much better tru the front windows.
I then decided was it possible to raise the floor 100mm .
The view was better and still plenty of headroom.

My local supplier of steel had all I needed and the lengths were delivered friday evening.

One concern from the designer was not to add too much weight.
Total weight added 68.5 Kgs.

I started cutting out the floor girders this morning (Sunday) and by 10pm tonite it is 80% done.




100mm x 6mm flat bar 4.2 m long to sit on top of the bulkheads





I cut out the backing strips 100mm to allow the new plates to be welded. I cut blanks and scribed them and cut with the jig saw.



Bulkhead FR4 ready for welding



On the front bulkhead I added a 100 x 50mm box to build up from the angles and make the whole thing stronger,

Port side looking back completed.

As such its using all the standard parts , but just raising them.

I now have 100mm extra headroom in the engine room and more space to run ducts etc.

I will also run stuff tru the Box section on the front as there will be a hatch just underneath the box section.

Winner all round and the floor is better higher.

Hope to finish it tomorrow evening and cut in the steps for the aft cabin.

In Other news....

Stainless Steel water tank will probably get finished this week.

The grey water tanks ( 3 of them) are now basically designed should have them in a few weeks.

The Big Grind Begins...

Last weekend 28th Feb I started the final grinding of the outer hull along all the weld lines.
The sandblasting day is coming fast.
Theres a few things left to do structurally and I'm trying to get them all done before the blasting starts.
Theres probably a few days grinding left..


The pics below are only taken today 4th march on my phone so the quality is bad.
I designed a 1200Litre Freshwater tank for the front under floor of the boat.
As I moved the engine back in design I'm adding a bit of water to counter 0.8 degree.

Eurofab (Nose cone ppl) got this laser cut and its been down there for a couple of weeks waiting for time to weld it.


We got some of it tacked today and its lining up nicely.
I dont have TIG welding gear nor have I ever done it, so its pro welding here...

Front end, waiting for the other bit of the floor to get tacked.

The tank will sit across Frames 9, 10, 11. and matckes the shape of the boat exactly.

more pics when we do more on it.

Not getting any comments or mails for ages , yet over 900 views a month..

all quiet out there....?

Since oct 2007 14,000 people have viewed the blog.. thanks...

26-02-09 part 1

This is the anchor swivel that will fit into the bow tube.
I have mounted it on 10mm plate



It is tapped for the 8 bolts and ss steel nuts backwelded also.

Radius in 10mm cut with a jigsaw again.. its amazing what it can do.

Beefing up the plate for strength.