Day 10 Launch Day

Launch day!....and the worst weather you could imagine. Heavy rain and a strong south-westerly. The journey up and down the River Hamble would have been very difficult, so the HBBR group called it off and headed for the Horse and Jockey by car.

At the pub it was still raining, but there is always time for one of those cheesy poses:

A quick check for leaks, sort out the seating (that odd block of wood is the temporary outboard mount)

And off I go! She instantly felt "right".

She floated so the HBBR members duly paid their sponsorship! In total £94 was raised for the RNLI.

Day 6 Finishing outer seams

21:37 Another apprentice has graduated to join the Epoxy Jedi. My good wife here helping out with the messy epoxy work.


23:57 Finally finished the bottom seams together with one coat of epoxy. Will she float now?? YES!

Day 5 Sealing the outer seams

12:03 The only way to get her finished in time is to take some holiday. Once again fantastic blue skys. It took a long time to remove the stitches, some were left in, and the ugly looking ones were removed by cutting them inside the tape and pulling the two ends from outside.Then my industrial strength 450 Watt sander gets to work on the sharp edges.

17:01 After a lot of tedious work, 3 bottom seams, bow and stern filled and taped. Decided to take a rest this evening and type up this blog.

Day 4 Finishing internal seams

23:51 In the evening after work finished the other half of the internal tapes.

Day 3 Stitching Planks, First Joints Taped

12:00 Moved outside for better access. Look at the lovely twist in the ply....that needed 4 bricks to hold it in place. I'm building the beamy 32" Mk2 version of Little Kate designed by Paul Fisher.



13:54 Finally finished stitching.



14:12 Who wants to paddle?. With 32lb of thrust I'll be first past the bridge!



21:13 Starting on the internal glass fibre tapes, 3in tape for the bottom and lower chine, 2in tape for the upper chines seemed about right.



23:03 "Woa-oh.. we're half way there....living on a prayer". Half the internal tapes done and 6 days left

Day 2 Joining Planks

12:32 Butt joints are a quick way of joining planks and stitching can begin immediatly without waiting for the epoxy to cure. I'll remove the screws when the epoxy cures





16:54 All panels are joined and stitching started. It seemed to take a long time to join the panels even though I worked almost non-stop. Dining rooms are really handy for boat building!. Do you like the artwork? Its my daughter's final project for her Art Foundation diploma at the local college.

Day 1 Two Sheets of Plywood

Visited the local builders merchant about 10am, returned with 2 sheets of 4mm ply and started drawing out the plans at 11:22am



13:46 Cutting started.... there's a line there somewhere. Notice full compliance with Health and Safety.



14:20 Cutting is much quicker clamping 4 pieces together. So 32 major cuts were reduced to 8.




14:28 My trusty Stanley block plane in action again. I inherited it from my Dad and its over 50 years old, but its one of the best tools I have. It works really well on ply end grain due to the low blade angle.



15:21 The weather was perfect... just look at that sky. You can also see my solar panel that heats hot water.



16:02 All 16 planks cut. The design has 4 planks per side, symmetrical front and back.