Bits and Pieces

Its been a while since my last post and some of you might be thinking that I have been doing other things. Far from it, I have been working on the boat most days but most things now fall into the "bits and pieces" category. I have a long list of small jobs and am slowly working my way through them. As I do this and remove items from the list I seem to add new ones! I guess this is inevitable as the end of a big project gets close.

As well as the following items I have been painting various small items. This takes time, even in our current hot weather I can only manage one coat a day! No photos of this because it is too boring!

I went out with the camera today and took some photos of various bits and pieces.

Here is one of the chain plates with the shroud attached with two shackles that add up to the right length. This looks untidy to me and I will organise something better. Even a simple cord lacing would look better than two shackles! Making the slot down through the gunwale was a challenge (the slot is 25 x 2.5 mm through about 60 mm of hardwood. I managed to cut two of them without damaging the paintwork.

 

 

The pinrail and pins took a while. The rail is curved and bolted through the bulkhead and frame work behind. Turning the pins was an interesting exercise - I sold my wood turning lathe and tools so made these pins on a metal turning lathe using an old screwdriver as a tool! Not the best arrangement but it seemed to come out OK.

 

 

The centreboard lifting tackle was straightforward except that the bullseye where the case top slopes down needed to be packed up a bit to compensate for the packing under the turning block where the wire changes direction. The 6:1 tackles will raise the board fairly easily I think - I can't move it very far with the boat on the trailer but it is easy to move a short distance. The padeye on the bulkhead will also serve as the fixed end point for the boom vang and the mainsail clew downhaul.

 

 

The "pot lid" hatches in the fore and aft bulkheads need to be secured with some sort of turn button catch on the outside and lugs on the inside. There are 3 of these hatches so 6 turn buttons and 6 lugs had to be made. They are simple enough but making multiple small wooden pieces is a pain in the ......

 

Here is a photo of a turn button catch on a test setup. The turn button is held in place here by a hex head bolt, I will use a nicer looking bolt in the finished job. There is a big washer between the turn button and the paintwork on the ply bulkhead.

 

Here is the turn button in its turned position. next to it are some more of the flock that I made.

Lastly, a profile of the turn button. The sloping relief under the sticky-out bit is needed because there is a 12 x 3 mm neoprene rubber strip to seal the hatch and this needs to be compressed slightly.

 

The lugs on the inside of the hatch are easier to make. Here are a couple of photos showing a lug in position. The black strip is the neoprene sealing strip; again the lugs need to be relieved with a slight slope to accommodate this strip and to compress it slightly.

 

 

Finally, a shot showing the lugs holding against the inside face of the bulkhead (but in a test situation).

 

 

All those little wooden pieces, lugs and turn buttons, need to be finished - multiple coats of oil after lots of sanding. No wonder it takes as long as it does!