Sails and Sand!

The moment of truth has arrived, I finally opened the sail bags to check on the condition of the sails that were on board when I bought the boat at auction over a year ago. The sails had been perfectly packed, a good start...
I had been putting off the moment, I didn't want anymore nasty surprises, the MPS (multiple purpose spinnaker) didn't look too bad, only a couple of small patches.

The Genoa was in good condition but on the other hand the Main looked very baggy and had lost it's battens, but it will do in the meantime.
The one thing that was a bit stange was that there was no sail identification numbers.
I will get one of the local sail-makers to make some replacement battens plus give us a price for a new sail.
All that was left was to re-flake the sail collection and put them back in their bags, the family suddenly decided to go shopping and I was left with the refolding 1 handed, the dog wasn't much help, not such a perfect job this time, so the sail-bags looked very full!

Sanding seems to be a never ending job - I think in retrospect it has been the worst, dirtiest and most uncomfortable job I have ever had to do.
This was made doubly bad, by finding that the hull was in great condition and didn't need such a radical clean, still with the paint system I'm using, this will not need to be re-done for at least another 20 years with the exception of the annual anti fouling and water blast cleans.

Another Step on the Way

The offending bearing is now out, I had to revert to using a hacksaw to ease the removal, now all I need to do is install a new one...

The new grab rails have been fitted and look quite good, when you do these apparently simple little jobs you understand why boat-building is so expensive. (lucky I no one told me that I couldn't do this stuff, probably wouldn't have listened anyway)

Cutless Bearing!!!!

I have been battling with the cutless bearing which refuses to move, I've tried, heat, hitting with hammer and made a puller out of pipe and steel rod but it's still stuck.
It has been left under pressure for 12 hours so 'maybe' it may have moved - I believe in father Christmas as well.
My next option is to start cutting the bearing out of the stern leg.

The work on the inside has almost come to an end with the new upholstery being made and fitted by Mrs DIY, it's all starting to look really good, only 2 more squabs to go.
I have had quotes for moving the boat over the hill to Seaview Marina for the fitting of the new engine and re-stepping the mast, then it's the "Grand Relaunch" of Thursdays Child, back into the water...This is planed for about mid January 2012.
One thing that we need to think about is the name, I believe it's time for a name change.

The Galley

The galley is now completed with only the oven to be installed, the next thing is to fit the grab rails to the cabin ceiling, a job that I will need the help of Mrs DIY.

Dumb & Dummer Footnote

Now the NZ elections are over John Banks (ACT) has been offered a ministerial post by John Key in the "new" National Government and Don Brash has resigned. (See 16/11/11 post)

The Weather!!!!!

Today

Monday 21

Rain about the western ranges, with heavy falls until evening, and periods of rain elsewhere. Northwest gales, gusting 130 km/h in exposed places, changing to cooler south-westerlies early evening with showers. Showers clearing tonight.

(a copy of the current weather-report)

Porthole Replacement

The replacement porthole solution that caused a bit of discussion on how to replace the damaged units plus get a reasonable finish to the inside of the cabin.
I bolted new Plexiglas directly through the fibreglass cabin roof and used the damage units which I had powder-coated on the inside.

I had planed to use only the original ones but the chances of leaks was too much of a risk

Back to the Real World

The boat - I needed to replace the through hull fittings in the forward head (toilet) which were made of bronze and designed not to be removed - ever!, unfortunately the valves had been 'lost' so they needed to be replaced.

This meant cutting them out bit by bit then repairing the holes ready for making new openings for the new plastic/glass units.
This job took about 4 hours of cutting and grinding in a space that I could just get my head, one arm  and the angle grinder, lots of dust and very sharp bits that fired off the grinder into my face.
Another tick off on the list, were almost there.

The TeaPot Tape or Dumb and Dumber

"The fallout from the secretly recorded conversation widened yesterday as New Zealand First leader Winston Peters attacked Mr Key, suggesting he had made comments offensive to NZ First's elderly supporters.
Mr Key refused to discuss details of last Friday's private conversation and has laid a complaint with police because it was recorded without consent from him or Mr Banks. (Source Ref NZ Herald - Derek Cheng)"


This is my take on the madness over the silly discussion by 2 NZ politician's
(section of discussion during the meeting of John Key 'PM' with John Banks 'JB' to endorse that National and Act Parties can 'work' together after the elections in the 9 days)

 PM   "Hi John found the place alright?"
JB  Couldn't miss it, those Fxzxy media were all over the place"
PM  How's is your boss"
JB    Don't talk to me about him, I have to talk to him every day." "What a control freak"
PM  "Lucky old you"
JB    "Not too much of the old please".
PM  " You mean to say you are being lobbied by the grey brigade
JB  " Yes, Don seems to have stirred up the grey brigade this time"
PM  "That man couldn't even get elected in East-coast Bays  when he was up against Social Credit's Gary Knap"." He really needs you to do the business this time"."Thanks for taking him off our plate".
JB  "Does that mean a ministerial spot for me?"
PM  "We'll see". "As long as he's gone by lunchtime".
JB  "Ha  Ha" "I think we should get back to you doing your smiling and waving thing for the media, we want them to write some nice things and take happy pics of us"
PM "Write! I don't think any of them can read"
JB  "John you are such a hoot"
JB "Hey John don't stand in front of me, I want my Photo taken too"
Exit stage left...

Rolling Stone's

When time stands still, and every move is in slow motion.


Yesterday, struggling with a very heavy roll of netting I was moving down to the fence being constructed to stop small children and balls falling down a steep bank/cliff at our daughters house in Wellington.(see Friday 25 March 2011 'What I've Been Doing')

I positioned the roll of wire ready to slide edge-ways, down one level, to the next flat area, carefully making sure it would not roll, when Mrs DIY said "let me help you", great, "just hold it don't let it go..."

The words of "don't let g...", hardly left my lips, tipped and started to move, slowly, then, faster and faster down the slope to the next level, building speed, finally colliding with a fence post, stopped.(whew) Then before anyone could reach it, tilted and tipped over the edge, down towards the next neighbours house 15m below.

Luckily it finally stopped, caught in the undergrowth at the bottom before it could do any damage.

The vision's that flashed thought my mind was a roll of wire rampaging through a family birthday party squashing everything in its path  (there was no one there), and the neighbour didn't even look up from his paper, even when I put a ladder down to retrieve the offending netting.

I had to have a 'sit down and a cup of tea' to settle my nerves

Silver Birch

 

The departed birch grove in winter as painted by author.

Oh Bother!

'Oh bother' and other words, we have neighbours, it was expected but the beautiful garden created by the previous owner has been 'strip mined' by the new owners, who have sliced and diced and sold off the bits.
The only beneficial thing is they are going to be very nice houses so the local valuations will rise, mmmm....
A pity the grove of Silver Birches have gone, as they made quite nice subjects to paint.
We have been planting trees to disguise and soften the outlook and have planted a Leland Cypress hedge and a few Blossom trees together with about 50 Hornbeam's.
Now all we have to do is wait, the good thing is as long as you can keep up watering, trees in this area grow very quickly, well relatively.

Progress

A reward, for a day of  gardening, was sitting on the deck at 7pm surveying the fruits of your labour.

Code Compliant

At last the house building has had it's final tick of approval, with the building inspector giving us the final pass on the barn and house.
For the last few days we have been finishing off all the little jobs that have been waiting for the "I'll get around to it".
Well it's now all done!

Oh, So Slow!!!!

The refitting of 'the boat' is moving really slowly but the head lining is now almost finished, only a couple of finishing trims to be fitted.
You can see it now looks a bit better than the original state that I received it in, the old porthole surrounds have been reversed and used to finish the inside lining.
I have to keep looking at the original pictures to remind me that it's getting finished, if a bit slowly...

Who Do You Think I Am?

Your a dog!
Yesterday Mr & Mrs DIY needed to take the van/truck to collect some gardening stuff from the plant shop, Oscar (dog) who normally is the first in line to go for a ride, was told to get in the back.
Normally he's allowed to ride up front, decided that the back was not the right place for him, sniffed, walked away and sat on the front step to wait our return.

What Happened To Global Warming?

We have had Summer, then Autumn which with a few exceptions was very mild, then an early spring, the blossom has started to come out, the daffodils were blooming, and we seemed to have missed winter altogether.
Then just as we were thinking about the arrival of an early summer, NZ, was hit by a polar blast, direct from the Antarctic for the past week.
Almost all of NZ was covered.
A big surprise, this is the first time our little village of Martinborough has had such a dump of snow, the last was over 70 years ago according to some locals.

The Big Jigsaw

Trying to remember how I was planing to reconstruct the cabin lining, that I had cut out and fitted, deconstructed, then painted over 4 months ago, was a little like putting a giant jigsaw together,
I had numbered all the pieces so it would be a simple matter to rebuild it but in the rush to get it finished, 'someone' had painted over the coding system, oh bother!
Many hours of crawling around on the floor and the lining is back in some sort of order.
Luckily I have the gallery to set it out. I only had just got it back after emptying all the stored furniture. and now it's once again changed from a gallery to a boat building workshop.
Mrs DIY is 'really pleased' with the change.

Back To The Project

Well I've decided to redo the electrics again, didn't like the way I had done the original fix.

The cabin head lining problem has been solved, I'm using wooden T& G, this will make sure we won't have the the return of the Westerly sag!I think it will work better than the original vinyl lining, plus it will give some extra space to run the electric cables to the mast and the main cabin lighting.

The NZ $ is very high at the moment, which means all the imported bits have come down in price, so had a big spend yesterday and purchased the 2 radios, one for communication the other for music.

Had a call from the 'nice man' from Volvo letting me know that the new motor was now on 'special' sometimes things do go in your favour.

Electrics

The progress on the boat has been a bit slow, over the past few months but I've started the 'interesting job' of new electrics.
The wiring has been all stripped out with all the bits that had been added over the years removed, installing, new board, wire, switches and lighting system (LED).
The LED lights in the boat, if they are all switched on will draw less than one of the original lights.

Progress...

Well the end of March has come and gone, and still the 'little' side project is not finished.
Every day I head off to Wellington and the 'project', which is rapidly coming to a finish.
I passed the key inspection by the building inspector and now with Steven's help we are fitting the drywall, the ceiling comes first. (see earlier post, 24 March 2009)
We should have this finished by today (Friday) then we will fit the internal doors, so we will be able to get on with cladding the walls.
I will get some pics of the progress for my next post.

1917 - 2011

Last week we said goodbye to our father. the following is a copy of the citation he received when he was awarded his DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross)

BYERS, Flying Officer, Ian Hamilton, DFC.

NZ428186; Born Shannon, 30 September 1917; RNZAF 16 July 1942 to 24 December 1945; Pilot.

Citation Distiguished Flying Cross (Imm) (2 March 1945): [61 Sqn RAF (Lancaster)]

Also DFM – F/S G F Cartwright, 1800047, RAFVR, Wireless Operator.

One night in December, 1944, this officer was pilot in an aircraft detailed to attack Giessen. Just as the bombs had been released a shell burst very close to the aircraft which sustained much damage. A few minutes later, the bomber was struck by a stream of bullets from an enemy aircraft. The mid-upper gunner was killed. His turret was set on fire, the port wing also caught alight, sending a long trail of flames along the fuselage. The wireless operator (air), with complete disregard of his own safety, made great efforts to subdue the flames in the mid-upper turret. His hands were burnt but he worked heroically. Finally he succeeded in quelling the flames. Fortunately, the fire in the port wing had now died down. Thereupon Flying Officer Byers, who, during the most harassing period had displayed the greatest coolness at the controls, decided to attempt to reach allied territory. Ably assisted by the fixers the wireless operator obtained on his wireless apparatus, he reached an airfield where he effected a safe landing in the face of great difficulties. This officer displayed skill and courage of a high standard.

What I've been Doing

The boat has had to take a backseat for quite a few weeks, as I've been rebuilding my daughters and son in laws, very old cottage in wellington.
Old is a bit of an understatement, it was almost terminal, everything had to be done, new walls electrics, plumbing and on and on.
The electrics and plumbing, will be at the first fix stage by the end of next week, well that's the plan.
The boat is supposed to be in the water by now...

What a Week!

It started with some Irish friends coming for a visit, they had been staying in Lyttelton (the epicentre of the big NZ earthquake) unfortunately they were delayed in Wellington for a couple of days due to David ending up in Wgtn hospital, very fortunately as it turned out.

They missed being in the middle of NZ"s biggest disaster by 2 hours.

When I phoned to find out how they were, David was being given a speeding ticket halfway on the way back to Christchurch.
You could say 'just the luck of the Irish!'

A Bit of History

Just a couple of pics to show how far 'TC ' has moved along.

New Portholes

The progress on the 'project' has moved on with the fitting of the replacement portholes and the repainting of the topsides, there's still a lot to do, the main hatch has now been rebuilt, the hull still needs painting and the new electronics need to be fitted.





The boat project is now moving a bit slower as I have taken on another part time project of restoring a cottage in Wellington, I'm a sucker for a challenge but this one has a firm time frame, that's the end of March(2011!)