Let there be light

I've got some nav lights now, all wired up and they go!

I got the LED ones, which are super bright, and they run off a twelve volt rechargeable battery. I knocked up a little box for the battery from marine ply, which is hidden well forward; and I put in a bakelite light switch, which is the sum of my electronics board. Wiring works, but I'll not bother to get it tidy till I've decided how to fit out the interior.

I also made the rather simple but snazzy mount for the stern light out of mahogany.

Interior lights will be battery run LEDs when I get around to it.

little jobs

The great thing about bronze is that you can bury it in the ground, leave it at the bottom of the sea, or in the open air, come back after 3000 years and it is as good as new. Museums are full of it.

Anyway, here is an old rod of bronze (of course not that old!) that I made a thread on. It will hold the spinnaker pole cup to the mast.

Also -

There are the headsail tracks and jarrah handrails cleaned of paint and on their way to being cleaned up.

I made a solid mahogany outboard bracket, nicely capped much in the same way as our doghouse doors.

I've also started scraping away paint that needs to be redone.

Moki

I just bought a doer upper to put in the garage when the sponsor and I move to the coast next month. At 50 bucks including the trailer, I couldn't in all conscience let it go for scrap.

It was purchased by the vendor's father in 1978, and was told then that she was built in 1893, which is possible, but after a bit of discussion with some very knowledgeable types on the CYA forum, she's more likely built during the first 20 or 30 years of of the 20th century. Anyway, I'm writing around the local clubs to try and find something out.

The lovely Phillipa is keeping it in front of her house, gamely fending off the local kids for a month till we get her up the coast; and Mike has already donated a lovely oregon mast. I'm fast stacking up the favours!

We did a rough and ready measurement, and she's about 20 feet by 6 feet, with about 2 feet max draft. All Kauri, and all but one of the plank lines are full length. Does this boat hold a record for the most sistered frames? I think it must do!

(I'm loving the 1930s bling at the bow).

Reasons to be cheerful Part 5

Friday evening on the water. We had a little breeze, which was forecast to fill in to nice 10 knots. It didn't.

A bucket of toerail

At left is all that is left of the old toerail starboard side. Below is the new one in the shed ready to put on, and at bottom is the boat with it all done.

The sponsor and I got this side on, but we had a bit of a drama when it started to split. So we graved in a new piece and it looks good.

This evening we had a lovely time varnishing and drinking beer in the sunshine.

The external part of the boat is almost done!

An engine

I'm now the proud owner of a Seagull outboard - the Vespa for boats; Stylish, reliable, and a bit heavier than their modern counterparts.

This one's a Silver Century long shaft. At 6HP, it should do for Shemara

toerail

Finally got a toe rail on! In August the sponsor and I got some kauri stock and cut and bevelled it. I'd chipped off the old toerail on the port side because there was some rot there in spots.

I'd scarfed up two pieces as you can see in the pictures, but once the first bit was on, decided not to join themup, as the three quarter length toerail makes it look a bit more sporty I reckon.

Anyway, the same will happen to the starboard side before long (even though there's nothing wrong with it), as she looks a bit imbalanced now.

Mike gave me a hand. In these pics he's using a punch to finish driving the square shank copper nails I'd banged in. The sponsor turned up again a bit later and she can be seen trimming the bungs after I've got them glued. We managed to get one coat of varnish on before the encroaching dark and beer slowed us down.

The wind turned quickly to the South in the evening, bringing a lot of cloud and a great big rainbow. So took some pics of that too.