Outboard well blanking plate complete

I have sealed the edges of the plywood with epoxy and then painted it. I had thought to apply some anti-fouling to it, but decided it isn't necessary. Most of the time the plate will be out of the water. It will only be in place, under water, when I am actually sailing. I have oiled the oak parts with linseed oil and covered teh two brackets in the boat first with epoxy and then with copper tape, set in the epoxy, so I hope it will stay on. They will be permanently under water, so need to be anti-fouled.

I have finished the superstructure painting outside of the cockpit, and it looks OK. I might apply another coat on the stern deck where it looks a bit thin. I have got to decide whether to do the hardwood next and then paint inside the cockpit or vice versa. Decision decision. I want to replace the main sheet with a longer rope and the lazy jack "topping lifts" but I will wait until I can get to a cheap rope show before I do that. I won't need them until April

English Raid 2013

Next year's English raid will be on the Norfolk Broads from Aug 5-9.
Details on the Raid website
http://www.raidengland.org/
I'm working on the map


View RAID England 2013 in a larger map

Outborad well blanking plate made

I received my plank of 18mm plywood from Robbins timber last week. They deliver to Cirencester twice a week so it didn't cost me as much for delivery as I feared. I then took my fancy new router and set to work making the new blanking plate. First cut it out roughly and oversized with a jigsaw. Then crewed my MDF template to the cut-out making sure it was central on it. Then using a bearing guided router bit I trimmed all round to form the finished plat. It worked like a dream, it was very straight forward. Just for the fun of it, I fitted a rounding over bit and went round the top edge of the plate, just to finish it off a bit more neatly and possibly to make it slightly easier to fit into the hole.

I bolted the handle to the centre of it, so that it can twist. I've made up two catches, in oak which need to be screwed to the bottom panels of the boat on either side of the opening. They still need a bit of finishing off to allow for the slight angle at the keel line. When they are all finished, I will cover them in epoxy for protections, because they will be permanently under water, and put copper tape over them to cut down on fouling.

Painting progresses

Cabin superstructure painted and hardwood stained. I will do the side and fore decks next and then move around the back of the boat. It is really cold, but the paint seems to be drying and setting well. No sign of it lifting off with the masking tape, which sometimes happens.

I am staining the hardwood trim with Sikkens Filter seven, which was used originally and seems to work very well. Some people don't like the matt finish, but I prefer it. My shiny varnish never looks good, and gets scraped as soon as I start sailing.

Starting to refit ropes to the cabin top. I have washed the jibs sheets in the washing machine and they have come up soft and as new. I want to replace the main sheet as it is really not quite long enough. It used to be the jib halyard, and it is about a meter too short for ideal. I may wait until the West Midlands Boat Jumble in February. Always a good place to get rope.

Table done and playing with router

Stain in table dry so I have refitted it and that is one job done. The dowels do show up a bit which suits me fine. I have also started playing with the router which is great fun. Hard to hold it steady as it runs up the edge of a board, but it forms a very neat edge. I have bought a set of cheap bits, and I think that hollowing out a block for a cup holder may have largely burned one out. You get what you pay for as always. I have ordered a bearing guided deep straight cutter to cut out my well blanking plate.

Final coat of paint on the cabin roof and I will start on the cabin sides next.

Pianting and other jobs under way

Cabin roof all masked up and I have painted two coats of Dulux Weathershield over the top after fairly thorough sanding and cleaning.
I have invested in some far more expensive masking tape this year. I used cheapo stuff from Lidls last year, and as they say, you get what you pay for. It kept tearing as I pulled it off the roll, and if it was left on more than a day it was very hard to get off. This is green "Frog tape" which went on easily, and I have just removed some after nearly two weeks, and it came off smoothly.

I am planning on a third coat of Dulux. It will be interesting to see how it lasts, but it has stuck on much better than the Toplac I used last year, which peeled off in a few patches before I even left the garage. Probably due to poor preparation, but it happened again after I had cleaned it up and reapplied.

I have taken the cabin table off, drilled out and dowelled the old screw holes, which are now redundant due to it being hinged, and am just restaining before I fix it back in. The dowels are light hardwood (ramin probably) and I had quite liked the idea of two rows of large light wood dots, but they have stained almost to the same colour as the hardwood table.I am also discovering the truism that it is much easier to work on things if you make the effort to remove them from the boat and work on the work bench. In fact it is much less effort, it just doesn't seem so at first.

I have just bought myself a Dewalt combination router, the first I have ever had, to do various planned jobs, such as cutting out the outboard well blanking plate. I have had to order the correct cutter separately as the ones in the set which I did order clearly were wrong when I looked at them, but had seemed right on the website. Shows my experience with routers.