How can it all take so long?

Well, I dunno, but it does.  I have but a paltry collection of photos to show you: little indeed for the hours that I've been putting in during the three weeks since last I posted.  All I can say is that I've been working long days and there isn't much to show for it.  Still, one day I'll get there!

 With the dividers filleted in place, I made framework for the lids/seats to land on.  As ever, things didn't go perfectly as anticipated, so there was a certain amount of sanding or filling to be done to get everything level so that the lids don't wobble.

 In the meantime, I finished off in the lazarette, making a removable sole panel which is at a little less of a steep angle than the bottom of the boat.  The idea is that it will be a little less uncomfortable to sit there when I am getting things out of the lazarette.

 Belatedly, I recalled that I had intended to make a bar either side, to keep the boxes in place.  Actually, there is not much headroom for them and the fiddle on the shelf is quite high, so they are very unlikely to jump out of their own accord.  Still, if they can, they will!  It would have been a lot easier to fit before I closed in the cockpit!

 The seat framing is glued into place and the screw holes plugged.  (I often find it quicker to use wood plugs for screw holes than to fill them with epoxy.)

 Before I painted the lockers, I cut up strips of decking for slats, in the hope of preventing things in the locker from standing in pools of water.

 I then masked off for the slats and proceeded to paint the lockers with four coats of low-sheen, two-part polyurethane paint.

 I stopped painting when the lockers looked white!

 Pulling the masking tape off was a satisfying job.  The locker is now ready for the teak slats.

 I am trying to fit a nice teak capping to the outboard motor transom.  My thicknesser stops at about 4 mm.  I sanded the teak some more, but it's still rather too thick to bend easily.  Using a silly number of screws and heating the teak with a heat gun, I managed to force it into place.  I will leave it there for a couple of days, but I have no great hopes that I will be able to glue it back in again without it breaking.

 A little bit of teak trim around the cockpit gives a pleasant illusion of solid teak.  I happened to have a long length that I'd made up for the forward end of the centre deck, but which had broken when I tried to bend it too far.  It was made from recycled timber with old screw holes plugged.  This recycled timber will now be recycled again.  Teak is inconceivably expensive and I can't even consider buying any new.

I don't think I've included a photograph of the little rail next to the fire.  It does a good job (assuming it doesn't delaminate due to the heat!), but is still awaiting the varnish brush.

And finally, I have managed to paint around the galley hatch.  I was waiting for the final use of the low-sheen paint to do this.  I'm pleased I remembered - I don't see my using that paint again.  Which is a nice feeling!

Well, I've just about finished the interior, apart from ... and ... and ...  However: enough!  Time to move on.

 Trimming around the forehatch was not something I was looking forward to.  I wasn't at all sure that the opening was absolutely square (it wasn't) and the 'frame' involved mitres, something I dread, in spite of having a drop saw that purportedly cuts them perfectly.  To do the job, I had to go and find a bit more kauri cladding, remove staples and nails,  burn off the paint, trim the tongues and grooves, send it through the thicknesser and then saw it to an appropriate width.  And people wonder why things take so long!

 Once the framing was fitted, I then had to line the inside.  The hatch corners are radiused and I experimented with making radiused pieces of wood using a hole saw, but once I had my dinky piece of wood, I then had to alter the 90° piece of wood to 89° or 91° or whatever my 'right angle' happened to be, otherwise it stood out like a sore thumb.  Finally, I decided that it was more trouble than it's worth, because with the lining in place, you can only see about 5mm of hatch radius and I can live with staring at that, should I be lying awake in daylight.

 The lining is in place and the plugs filling the holes; and I think it looks fine.  All those who have been deluding themselves that I'm a perfectionist can now allow me back into the human race!

And here it is all varnished up.  The beauty of the old kauri never ceases to gratify me.  It is also slightly awe-inspiring (and a tad depressing) to think that the tree it came from could easily have been 1,000 years old. 

 Securing the cooker wasn't as straightforward as it might have been.  There was nothing obviously to fasten to, so in the end I resorted to crude but effective: drill some holes in the side and insert a couple of barrel bolts.

 And while I was at it, I made spacers for my nice china mugs.  I shall fit some method of holding them down, so that they (and the cooker, of course) stay in place when the boat is upside down.  Unfortunately, due to what could kindly be called a design fault, the pan supports on the cooker can only be removed for cleaning once, after which they are loose, because the plastic foot to stop them from rattling breaks upon being removed, so they will fly around the cabin.

 However, the little alcohol cooker (yet another gift from David Tyler) looks pretty natty in place and the bolts hold it down in an impressively solid manner.

 All this time I had been picking away at the trim for the deckhead.  Before I could do anything, I had to fit the quadrants fore and aft, because they have to be forced into place against the camber.

Then I fitted all the fore and aft pieces, and joggled the short lengths athwartships around them.

In truth I really anticipated breaking at least one of them (the carnage in the forecabin left me permanently traumatised), but they were surprisingly amenable and the job went without too much bad language.

An attractive optical illusion comes from the curved centre section meeting the straight side pieces: it look for all the world like a slight S curve, which I find very appealing.

This is the best I could do to get the overall effect.  Small boats don't offer very good opportunities for great interior shots.

I have to say I am very, very relieved to get this trim up.  The deckhead looked like ... well, it looked bloody awful with all the gaps showing between the headliner panels.  Now it looks very presentable and all the wood breaks up what would be a vast area of white into attractive sections.

Oooh!  The little Flick!  Isn't it just too gorgeous for words?  I'm so pleased with it and can't wait to light it - I hope next winter!  The green tiles around it are hand-made from Spain.  When you are buying fewer than 20, it doesn't really matter what they cost, but I must say it adds to my conviction that small boats are a Good Idea, if you have expensive tastes like I do.

The cockpit beckons and, to be honest, I'm a bit scared of it.  David and I planned it all out in detail and I'm sure we got it right, but ...

So in order to ease myself into it, I smoothed out stern where the outboard bracket will be fitted.  The three layers had been pretty rough since fitted.

Then I set to fairing the final scarf, which was, in fact, the first one I ever did.  I faired up the one on the other side months (probably years!) ago and it looks perfect, so I hope I can do as well with this one.

Meantime I've been gradually fairing the surround for the galley hatch.  Again I have the radii to deal with, but this time I don't want any framing.  I think it will look too busy and anyway, I'll bang my head on it.  Headroom is somewhat constrained here, so I'll just keep adding thin layers of fairing and sanding it, until it's fit to be painted.

The first thing to do in the cockpit proper was to set up the framing for the bridgedeck, that I took out when I started building the interior.  As it happens, it was about 40mm or so too low anyway.  I've decided to put the bridge deck horizontal, but put a slope on the deck outboard, to help shed water.

This is the panel I removed and before putting it back in, I cut the bottom to match the camber of the deck and allow slightly easier access into the space under the cockpit.  I glued some thin veneers of kauri along its edge to finish it off.

At last - she has moved into the cockpit and glued some wood in place!!  And the first thing I did was to erect a keep-out barrier to prove that I mean business.  In fact this is the last major construction job, although neither building the bilge boards nor the mast are that minor!  Still, it feels good to get going on it.

And this is the view from the inside, looking out.  The bridgedeck will land on the panelled bulkhead.

A bit more teak - and then back inside

I was, I think understandably, quite keen to get my teak decks laid; I still had interior trim, lights and hatch trim to fit, but I thought I'd do it 'when I had some spare time'.  Whatever induced me to come up with this flight of whimsy, I wot not because, needless to say, there was no spare time. So, the teak was laid and the interior had not been touched.  The first job in the cockpit is going to be fitting the bridgedeck.  This is going to make going in and out of the cabin a lot less easy than it is now, so commonsense dictates that I get the interior completely finished before I commence work on the cockpit.

I still had some teak to lay - on the deck box lids, so decided to do that first, because they would need teak plugs and there were a few to be fitted on deck, too.  Besides, my mind finds it difficult to move from one mode of building to another, so it seemed sensible to carry on with teak before I lost the thread, so to speak.

 The deck is laminated, you may recall, from one layer of 6mm ply and one layer of 4mm.  I doubted anything was going to be fitting to the nearest millimetre, so reckoned 9mm ply would be fine for the lids.  These were duly cut out and coated.

 Additional framing had to be added along the sides for the lids to land on.  Much cogitating took place while I decided whether to hinge them inboard or outboard.  Gordon, (Tystie's new owner) mentioned that if they were hinged inboard, like his are, there is a possibility of stuff falling out of them, if you are heeled well over and have forgotten to fasten them down.  Or so he has been told ...  I decided put the hinges outboard, so this also required some more wood fitting around the boxes.

 Then came the fun bit of fitting the teak.

 While I was at it, I took some of the narrower stock (which will get used up in the cockpit) and trimmed along the edge of the cabin.  I raised this to obtain a little more headroom, and as I want the (upper) rubbing strake to run in a fair line along the sheer, it can now run under the teak, which will be varnished.  I trust it will all look as though it was intended from the start, when the boat is completed!

 The deck box with the extra bits of wood fitted around it.  Thank heavens for epoxy, is all I can say.  It is so good for this sort of 'retrofitting', which would otherwise require high levels of joinery.  I'm not quite sure how I could even fasten things together, if I were building conventionally.

 Meanwhile, back on the bench, the deck boxes get their teak glued down ...

 and then sanded smooth.

 Then a 'dry fit' before sealing the edges.  However, even I didn't find these too challenging to fit.

 And for once, I didn't struggle with the (simplest in the world to fit) hinges.

What you may not have noticed, but I shall point them out to you in case, are the 308 teak plugs that have been fitted in the screw holes.  I was astounded that I need so many!

 I hope that the lids will rest at a slight angle against the guard rails.  If they don't I shall have to make some sort of hook and eye arrangement to keep them in place.

 OK, back to the interior.  The piece of kauri is to hold the light fitting.  It couldn't be put in place until the beading was fitted and so the wires have been sticking out of the bulkhead for what seems like months.  (I tested them and was relieved to find that none of the zillion screws that went into my deck had cut through them!)

 None of my kauri is long enough to go right across the cabin.  The camber, as you will note, is pronounced and it is exceedingly difficult to force even these dinky bits of quadrant into place with out fastening them permanently.  I am hoping that I can fit one properly and then cut the second accurately to length.  I would reckon the odds at 10:1 at best!

 Fitting the mounting for the lamp.  The wiring isn't just hidden because I'm precious (although of course I am): it's hidden because there is no appropriate groove in the base of the lamp for it to run down.  It's going to be fun and games when I finally come to fit it, I fear.

 Meanwhile, interior trim will need to be fitted around exterior openings.  The hatches are fitted, but still to go are a decklight over the heads, a dorade ventilator ditto and the big hole for the pram hood.  The first two can be dealt with by using hole saws and I went and borrowed one for the decklight. It was intensely traumatic cutting a hole in my beautiful deck!

 I had to go back and complete the job from inside.

 All so that I can fit this.

 Ah yes, another hole - I need one for the chimney for my wood burner.  I thought the black lacked class, so have repainted a nice green.

 The flue is to be made from copper downspout.  Some teeth have been sucked about this being too thin.  Time will tell, but the price was right, seeing as how the kind people in the shop found me a damaged length.  Of course, it won't look nice and shiny like this once the fire has been lit.

Because the stove was built with the intention of fitting something totally different, the hole for the flue was a completely different size from the downspout.  After much head scratching, I went into Whangarei to see if I could find some sort of reducer.  To cut a long story short, with helpful people passing me along to other helpful people, finally a gentlemen called Carl lent me his dad's crimping tool, saying 'that's how we used to do it'.  I managed well enough, even if I did have to use both hands and was right impressed with the result.

 I reckoned I'd better fit the bit of copper that will be used to protect the bulkhead, while I was at it.  Paul, at All Marine had the brilliant idea of using copper roves to provide for a nice wee air gap.  I felt like a real boat builder, hammering in copper nails!

The +/- 150mm copper strip had been given to me, cut from a wider length.  I could hardly plane it smooth, so took to it with a file: good enough, I think.  (The reason is looks a funny colour is that it still has its plastic film over it.)

Before I can fit the wood burner, I have to light it to 'season' it as it were.  The paint gives off fumes on the first occasion.  Definitely a job for outdoors, fine weather and a calm day.