...and another tender post

With all my concentration being on Shemara lately, the sponsor had rightly got after me about the tender project being a little stalled.

Last Friday the external filleting of the seams had been completed, so we flipped her over. We have since attached the rubrails, inwhales, quarter knees and breasthook. Now I think all we need do is get the seats in and we can begin sanding and ten varnish and paint. Fun!

More on the Mast

Well it took almost 3 full days' work to get the mast scraped and sanded but it is done and I"m on the fourth coat of varnish. Trev and and apprentice from Duffy's helped me carry it around to the shed, I measured up all the rigging and all labelled, took it back to Duffy's to give me a quote on the replacement. Andy the caretaker then helped me get it into Vice Commodore Dave's long shed, as my mast won't get into mine. Cheers Dave - I don't think it'll be in there too long.

The first picture here is of the original (made of Douglas Fir) and my replacement (Mahogany) support for the mainsail track as it feeds up the mast. The glue had failed, and as the original had a bit of green growth on it I thought it would be best to attach a new one. Then follow:

Spreader ends (spreaders are of Jarrah and look great)
Mast head (galvanised steel)
Scraping
Everdure on
All priming done.

The thing is looking really shiny now, so when the finish is done I'll post up the pic.

Fairing

Two posts today!

Here are two pics of the tender's hull. I tried to put fibreglass tape around the keel for a bit of abrasion protection and strength but it was a bit of a disaster so I pulled it off again before it cured. I've stuck some capping on instead, made of Kwila. The hull is just about fair now, and the sponsor and I will do a bit more sanding tonight and then flip her over to get started on fitting out.

Thank goodness for mates

All tied up in the evening.

Yesterday I finally got the mast out of Shemara. A few days ago Ben took his lunch break to come down and help me paddle her to the wharf for the crane. The Northerly was a bit too strong so it didn't happen. A few days later Mike steered her while I dragged her out with the tender. I spent the night on her to guard against yahoos, removed all the rigging, and booked the crane for that morning.

Trev (who can be seen here in the white jumper on launch day) lent a hand at the time of the hoist out and towed me back with his lovely little launch "Cygnet". Crofts, the crane company, were great. It only cost 80 bucks. In the final picture you can see the penny which has stuck to the foot of the mast. Lucky it's there because modern coins are made of rubbish metal.

Planking on

Well another week has passed and we have all the planking done. We've got quite a few fans around the waterfront at the moment and gazillions of advice. But we know what we are doing (I think).

Lots of people are telling me how their tenders are falling apart, so there might be a little fleet of Romneys in Wellington before long.

Now it's time to fill the outside seams with thickened epoxy before flipping her over.

Welcome to the new blog follower from Brazil.

Planking on the weekend

We're now ready to get planks number 4 on. So that means we're half way through the planking. If we're lucky and consistent, that means we should be ready to turn her over by the weekend!

I quite like these pics, with Shemara in the background at her mooring. Very nice!

Planking last week

We started planking. It takes about a day to get each pair on, as you have to wait for glue to dry - even then we're kind of pushing it. Fitting I guess only takes about an hour.Top picture shows the garboards, then the process continues...

The jig's up

The sponsor and I are attempting to build a new tender. It's a Romney 2.2.

Top Picture: Shaping the top curve of the keel. I used the Spokeshave for this. You can see the planks already cut out on the floor, and the stem on the table on the right.

In the next picture, I'm using a piece of scrap as a guide to plane the angle at the aft end of the keel.
The next two pictures show the sponsor making sure all is square (ish) and straight.

The final pictures show it all glued and clamped up. We'll get on to the fitting of the planks when the epoxy dries. It's very cold here at the moment and doesn't seem to want to cure at all.