Thursday, 16 February 2012

Moving Day!





At last the big day has arrived, the boat was lifted over the hedge onto the waiting transporter ready for the first part of its journey to the sea,.I couldn't get a shot of the boat hanging over the trees as I was hanging onto a rope to turn the boat around, a very scary exercise!.
Because the load was oversize (4m beam) a separate pilot vehicle was need to get it 'over the hill'.
After it was loaded and driven off and because I was so 'emotionaly drained', I waited an hour before heading over to Seaview where the boat was to be unloaded.
I arrived to find it sitting in its cradle waiting for the new motor to be installed, all I had to do was pay the man the money - 'no cash no spash'.
The motor should be installed by the end of next week then it's re-stepping the mast, then into the water, or maybe its 'into the water then re-stepping the mast', I don't know, but it's soon.
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Thursday, 9 February 2012

On the Move

Just received the message that the transport company are able to move our boat from its current home on our front lawn to Seaview Marina in Wellington Yeah!!!
So, Wednesday next, the boat gets loaded on to the transporter for its 2 hour trip over the Rimatuka 'hill' to Wellington, the top of the road is only 500m (1600ft) above sea level, it doesn't sound much but it's a long steep drive up and over.


Thursday, 26 January 2012

Transport

The boat is finished - enough to take the road trip from Martinborough to Wellington, the motor is sitting waiting to be installed but unfortunately no transport.

The closest company that specialises in moving boats of this size, is in Auckland the other end of the North Island and they are not sure when they might be in Wellington and able to do the move.
So it's sit and wait, and try not to get to grumpy...

The only bright spot is that I will be able to finish some of the small jobs that I was intending on doing at Seaview (marina). oh well, sigh....

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

The Mast - Cables


A Quick post while I'm waiting for my electric drill to recharge.

The riggers, who took the mast down after the auction almost 18 months ago, as a 'joke' decided to cut the cables about 25mm from the exit holes instead of just unplugging them from the deck fittings, very funny fellows, I have had to run a new set.
The marine cable is a tad expensive, so that's why I'm a bit grumpy

It wasn't to difficult but unfortunately lost the aerial cable that was just poking out the bottom, luckily, I had run an extra pull-through with the Tri light cable, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get the new one to the bottom.
I have only about 2-3 days more work, then it (the boat) can be sent 'over the hill' to it's new home in the water at Seaview Marina.

PS. Cutless is a bearing, cutlass is for cutting your head off - sorry for the confusion (Wednesday, 7 December 2011)
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The Great Missing Glasses Mystery


Where do they go?, 2 weeks ago I found my 'lost' glasses, a total of 4 pairs and now they have all 'gone' again.
I got fed-up with searching and Mrs DIY totally denied that she had put them away somewhere, so in desperation, once again I headed off to the local supermarket and bought 2 more pairs, - I only need a 1.5 magnification for reading...

Now the 2nd new set is missing, somewhere around there is a bunch of glasses having a meeting or maybe escaped to a better place.
PLEASE COME BACK!
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Saturday, 14 January 2012

Junior Masterchef Masterclass by Mrs DIY

An early class for our number 2 grandchild, with Mrs DIY teaching the finer points of how to cook potatoes...

Friday, 13 January 2012

Outside Painting - Done

Well, the outside painting of the hull is now finished!!! it looks OK, it's never is going to look like a new boat but the finish has turned out very well.(I think)
It was a 2 pot International paint which dries very smooth and looks as if it has been sprayed.
This was achieve not without a little at drama, I had mixed up enough paint for one side and we had an unexpected rain shower, the weather was warm 25deg which meant that the paint was already starting to go off. (panic, I had a $100 worth of paint turning to goo)
What to do? a quick read of the instructions showed at 7degC the pot life was 5 hours, so a bit of cling film over the top and into the fridge till it stopped raining, phew!
Luckily Mrs DIY was not at home

Monday, 9 January 2012

Wet and Dry



The weather has been a bit wet. At this time of the year it should be looking nice and brown like the top pic.
Both photographs were taken about the same time of year, but 1 year apart..
The top view is only about 4km up the road from our house, it's now back to having to cut the lawns once a week!.
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Saturday, 7 January 2012

Painting

The boat is starting to look a lot 'crisper' with it's new blue stripe and white epoxy bottom, only annother 3 coats of epoxy to go to get it to the required thickness.

Probably don't need the extra coats but I've come this far, it might as well be the full 65micron thickness (.065mm) that's a little over 1/4 a millimeter.
Please excuse the pending bonfire.

Sunday, 1 January 2012

The End of the Big Scrape



At last the scrapping has finished, probably one of the worst boat job that I have had to do but now it's done, it's only a bit of sanding now, so we get a good key for the new sealing coats.
I had to give up for the last 2 days as it rained solidly (it is the Xmas holiday after-all) but before that, I proved that you must not use power tools in a wet environment, the little sander that I was trying to use, decided to let me know in no uncertain terms that it was very unhappy.
The little red light flickered on and the device started to go very slow and emit a strong smell of ozone, at this point commonsense kicked in and I gave up and went inside and started the challenge of downloading a book onto my eBook that I had got for Xmas.
I won't bore you with the the little challenges it presented and the words I called it, I think threatening it with flying lesson's fixed it but I finally did it, very easy when you know how.
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