29th Feb 2008

Today we built the 2 x 1000 litre fuel tanks.
They were tacked and lined up fine.
Once finished and painted, they will stay above the floor until the full welding is complete in the engine room, then insulation and finally the tanks will be sited under the floor.




Partly welded to stop it from warping.


End section, welded inside and outside.


The flux cored wire is magic.

28th Feb 2008 part 2 of possibly 3...

Pic of roof section, this is now all tacked and nearly 100% in place.
we also flipped one of the foredeck bits to allign the main windows in front.



Introducing the "Thinga-ma-jig 3000"
A little jem of a tool for marking lines from the marked side to the under side.
Patent pending... discounts available for any sales....




Wow, it just looks so good. you just have to admire the designers..


From the neighbours house, and the shutter half jammed

More later..

28th Feb 2008 Part one


Last full day this week of serious work, things will slow down for a few days.
We put in the roof stiffeners and put in the side wall stringers, All went fine.



Side walls completed. (roof frame backing strips to be cut.)


Roof of saloon goes up in 3 pieces


Picture of deboet from 16metres up. DONT ask how we did it..
All health and Safety rules were obeyed.... NOT!!!!!


My new front lawn. on the 30th October 2007, this had tons of metal all over it.

This pic is taken from the fly bridge floor.

27th Feb 2008 Later.

Added the side of the cabin for a test fit



Top stringers welded on the saloon side walls.



Great day... we have the loader till 2pm tomorrow and we will get the saloon roof laid on.
thats the last of the heavy lifting done.
we did remember to put the sheets of the fuel tanks into the boat before the saloon frames went up..
it would have been fun if we forgot.

27th Feb 2008

Its my birthday, 41 today.

Got a good day and a clear one from work.
Heres whats left on my front lawn, I had to cut the grass yeaterday around the bits.




In January I put the roof of the main saloon on the aft cabin roof. Today I realised that there was no way we could lift them without a front loader.

Enter the Frontloader from Fraher Tool hire.
20 minutes notice and it was in the yard.



I couldn't see where the sheet was to go so we used headsets for theatre to communicate.


Other side.


Landed in fine.


All roof frames in and the front deck laid on for fitting.

25 & 26th Feb 2008


Monday rained on and off, but I managed to get the port side forward walkway welded in place, As the back one was in the right place, this one fitted good at the bow end but not so good at the back end, I had to force out a frame or two 5mm or so to correctly position it.
One side down one to go.




Pic shows a mis alignment of FR12 due to the fact that we had to move it.

During today (tuesday) we attacked the starboard side front walkway.
OUCH!
fitted fine at the back but 12mm under shaped at the bow. Looking at it it meant that Frames 9,10 &11 needed to be moved out 5mm thus giving us the 12 at the bow.

This morning we built the following structure to apply 20 tons of pressure at the same time to the 3 frames, bit by bit out it went. no welds cracked as it gently went out.


Scaffold and 8 ton jacks.


there it is all good,
Note the bow piece is just laid in, it has to come out to finish a few bits.




Dad comes to see progress.


Tonite, I tacked bits of scrap to help carry the tops of the aft cabin, They are ready for welding, just to get help with them.



Busy couple of days, its really comming together now. 1 weeks time will make a huge difference.

24th Feb 2008


OK ... I was a little hasty on saturday saying what would happen next.
Sunday (all day) was spent lining up side sheets that were only roughly tacked to the frames.
In order to set the top shape of the boat I had to re-position the whole left hand side of the boat top sheets. It took a while but worth the effort.



RHS getting the upper frames to hold the wheelhouse sides


Busy day...
LHS back walkway fitting perfect with some pushing etc.

23-Feb 2008

WEBCAM Back up and running!!!!

Spent most of today lining up the Gunnels, some tidying had to be done as this is now the final shape of the side of the boat.



The next thing fitted is the lower frame bits to take the side of the saloon (wheelhouse)
Tomorrow I will fit the other side gunnels and then the boat has its final shape.

22-Feb 2008

Beautiful mild day here in Ireland, not too much done but with much heavy lifting form the guys here, we managed or at least they managed to get the bow deck piece (aptly named the "Titanic Piece") and the side gunnells or deck plates.
These are only laid in for now to set and check the frames against them as they will set the final shape of the boat at that level.

Some things need a push and a pull so with the drawings tomorrow I will sort the little problems

Anyone with nothing to do tomorrow SAT 23rd please come and hold the tape measure..!!!



I'll take better pics tomorrow.

lots to line up before tacking in the parts.

21st Feb 2008


With the front upper sides up, we had the whole day at it today,






First of the 2 bow pieces fitted


Both sides nearly complete




Frame 15 gets fitted and forces the correct shape for the front bow piece

This was supposed to be a really hard bit as everything meets here, any mis-alignment will show up.

Because I spent 2 days straightning the lower side sheets to be as perfect as they could, it has paid off big time.


last frame frame in place.

Finally a complete tacked together main hull.







Tomorrow and the weekend will hopefully see the start of the main salon and foredeck

maybe it will be finished by march after all...?





Adam (3) looking for dad, he also wants me to build him a smaller boat he can play with as this one is just too big.!..

Ta Daa!!!!!

19th Feb 2008

Spent the day at the boat today, RESULT!
spent all morning lining up the lower side sheets so that they lined up and met the spray rail.
at the boys came back and we started the upper sides. 1.5 hours a side and up they went.
Everything lined up perfect. All the hard work lining up the other sheets paid off big time.




Better pics tomorrow.


Today was a race as the lighting stands go to work holding up lights in a panto for 3 weeks statrting tomorrow.
Dont need them now... happy days!

18th Feb 2008

Here we go again, fustration at having to work all the time,
I had hoped to be further on in the build, but i am getting back at it again with a "No prisioners" attitude.
Over the weekend I put in the floors of the forward cabins and over the engine room, they are just in temproary as they will come out for finishing the hull and installing the engine and tanks.

As you can see from the above pic, the side sheets didn't line up and the fun began.

I would like to thank the faithfull followers of this blog from all over the world, who have stayed looking and are waiting patiently for progress.

I Will put the camera on again soon.





Dara has new freedom gaining more access to the boat.






Finally lined up.


Span sets pulling the sides in.

2-2-2008

Managed to get a few hours at the poor lonely hull, its impossible to work with the weather.
Today I got the port side lower sheet up and nearly placed ready for welding.
It lines up fine, with just a bit of jacking required to get all the frames lined up perfectly.







Inside its looking like a boat now.



Hopefully the weather will improve soon, I really want to get it done and finish the hull before the end of march.!