Moving forward

29th Nov 2007

The lower side stringers upto frame 8 are fitted each side


The front frames from 9 trough 15 need the backing strips fitted before we can tack them in forming the front of the boat.
today we managed to get 6 frames completed and 4 frames remain.


Backing strips welded to the inside of the frames.
there is a radius of 150mm approx.. we used the gas bottle to form it perfectly...!


Frame 13 assembled (in darkness) ready for the backing strip

Transom

27th Nov 2007

The Transom was fitted in just a few hours, First it was tacked on the flat truck as it is in 3 pieces.


Dimensions checked and its good to go.


Lifting the transom with lighting stands allows exact positioning.
I have to say that what looked to be hard, turned out to be very easy with the stands.
They can lift 150kg each. We will probably use 3 stands to lift the hull side plating when fitting.



Transom fitted and tacked on to the floor plates and the upright supports inside.

22 + 25th Nov 2007

Progress under way again, 6 hours on Thursday to finish the Aft cabin floor and get the frames 9 +10 in (5 more to go)

2 hours on Saturday fitting the frame tops 5-8



Forward of the engine bay stringers



Its size is really starting to show.


Today
added the aft frames 1-4 tops.

The side stringers and the frame stiffeners to be fitted next.

I also need to sort out acess to the hull from the rear as the sides will be impossible very soon.

Weather permitting , next work on tuesday, weds this week.

Boat Yards have their uses !!!!

Ok, so you want to build a boat, in your garden, in Ireland, and it rains for a week. !!

Short of a few more welds what we have built so far nearly floated...

the result was a mud bath...

On wednesday, 22 ton of stone and a roller left us tired and a new flat DRY surface to work from. I did take pics but it was too dark for the camera.

Before


After..

Sunday 18th Nov 07

3 hours in the cold and wet.
However all the aft lonitudionals and frames are in place and most tacked together.
The floor sheets in places need to be raised to meet the framing, This will straighten out the dip betreen the first and second support frames.



Floor level in the Aft Cabin (my cabin!!!)



Rain and darkness killed the few hours I got at it today, Hopefully I will get more done this week.

To all the viewers out there...... Your comments are welcome.
However references to " Titanic and Noah's Ark" will be noted and you will be left on the harbour.!!!!

Saturday 17th November 2007

First day in a week to get at the boat, Unfortunatley rain threatned all morning only to folllow with torrential rain later. And it rained.....

However before the torrent. Paul called and we raced to get some ribs in and we started the aft section with longitudinals and Frame no:1







All fitting together well.


Thanks to Barry for his help too!

Fitting Centre Longitudinals

Tuesday 13th November 07


We began the day fitting the centre (engine room) longitudinals.
As the hull was being formed we did notice a kink in the joint of the front and back plates.
But as the bow wasn't formed it is hard to know where the hull is going to lie for you.

Kinked bit in-line with vice grips


Laying down a sample piece it looked like the port side was bent at the joint and would never fit..

Edgar was called and he approved of what we proposed to do about it.

Joint separated, the floor lined up better.






We had too much metal on one of the bigger rear sheets.
We cut the Tacks and released the sheet and removed 3 mm of metal.





The end result meant that the hull is fair on both sides and the longitudinals are a perfect fit.

Rain stopped play, and as we cleared up lost power for 5 hours.
Major outage in the area.
No! it wasn't us with the welder!

Bulkheads

Monday 12th Nov 2007
Bulkheads front and back of the engine room.
As the hull is still floppy, it had to be jacked into the correct shape to fit the bulkheads.
Very slow to fit but a 100% fit makes the boat hull true to shape and is the basis for all the rest of it to follow.


BHD 8 fitted.



Big thanks to Paul for the 2 hours he gave us as we really needed an extra pair of hands.!

Interesting fact... the boat is now split into 3 compartments. You have to get off one bit to climb onto another as the bulkheads are so high !!.

Looking better!

Saturday 10th November 2007

Today it seems more like a boat. Having seriously pulled and dragged the sheets to line them up overnight, the shape becomes more apparent.



David helps me with tools and checking the jacks are in place.





Bit by bit it comes together.



Jacks used to close the centre seam, then tacked inside.



Span set pulls it together at the bow.










Finished floor of boat. Looking good.

The floor

Friday 9th November

Progress has been held up for 3 days as we couldn't get a frontloader to hire.
with only 3 people around it was impossible to lift the sheets.

We used the Truck as a flat surface to Tack the sheets of the floor together.
With no sides, we loaded from one side and unloaded from the other.


Assembling the sheets on the only flat surface I have.



The sheets were then lifted through the truck onto the hull jig.


The 2 Aft sheets layed onto the jig.




3 of 4 sections layed in.




Last piece being added.

Under the cover of darkness and lack of camera on the same day we lined up the sheets and tackwelded the aft ones together.

As you can imagine, it looked like it would never line up and form a good shape as a boat rather than apile of scrap metal. !

Monday 5th November

Ireland steeped in sunshine for a few days to come..
time to get on with it.!

Assembly of the Jigs on the RSJ Frame
Its size is really showing the size of the boat.


Milo dwarfed by the size of it.



So far its all lining up 100%, the accuracy of the kit seems to be perfect.

Day 2- Assembling Jigs

Sunday 4th November 2007.

A Dull and Misty day.

Continued with the assembly of the 4th frame and began to put in the stiffener profiles to the jig frames.

I had to email Edgar in Holland to ask a question and got a reply at 6:40 am. Sunday.... Theres service!

Decided to put up my pic as I'll usually be taking them.

David took it for me.

Lining up the profiles

Chris comes and helps,

His real involvement will be in assisting the "tech-ing" out of the boat.

If its anything like his Landrover Disco 3, it will be able to fly too!

Finished Jig frames, 1 left to finish in background.

The Beginning

Saturday 3rd November 2007

I have 2 days off in a mad time at work. 8 am sees me outside trying to sift trough the piles to sort it out,

The first thing I did was to get the fuel tanks inside and coated with WD40 as I won't need them till March-08. I got as much done but having nobody else or the Frontloader I needed but couldn't get, I have to get more help next week.

I started on the Jigs for the boat. These will be welded to the RSJ frame to shape and support the boat.

Dara oversees the accuracy.

David helps with the assembly







6PM and 2 frames done and an hour later sees the 3rd one done.

PS. Anybody got a small crane for a week or 2.!

D-Day The Steel arrives ( Eventually !)

30th October 2007

Finally the day came to get the steel unloaded, We hired a front loader to lift the boat from the truck.

David (9) Adam (2) and Dara (5) waiting patiently for a truck to arrive.

As usual we waited all day and had to fight to get it delivered that night so at 10:45 Pm a very annoyed driver came to town.. well he thought HE was annoyed till he met me!..

Patryk and Milo assisted the loading of the forks while I drove the machine. It took just over 2 hours to unload all 600+ pieces totalling more than 13 tons of metal. We had to floodlight the drive and light up the trailer. Only 1 piece of steel slightly bent, nothing a good hammer won't sort out.

Most of the lifts involved lifting 4 metre wide sheets of steel piled on top of each other over 4 metres high to clear the trees each side of the drive way. At least we wont have as much difficulty getting the boat out as it will be lifted out by a 130 ton crane. but thats another story.









The end result in daylight... now where to start!