3389Hrs – Things Coming Together

A busy day today, I made more good progress on the mast case, extracted the outboard engines from deep storage and got them unpacked, took delivery of screws and teak oil for the decks, lashing strakes and rub rails, and got confirmation that my timber order will be arriving on Monday.

Work on the mast case comprised of gluing the three 18mm ply sections of mast tabernacle into place, the trickiest part of which was making sure that the back piece sat at the correct aft mast rake angle. I also fitted the two 18mm aft end doublers and the upper section of the winch bed.

If all goes well I should break the back of this mast case construction tomorrow although I still need to work out exactly how to finish the forward end of the box as I’ve opted for a stainless steel bow roller fitting rather than the timber constructed one on the plans. This means I’ll have to add additional hardwood cheeks to increase strength.

While things were quiet in the yard I roped in the guys to help me get my outboard engines out from the back of the shed where I put them safe some 14 months ago. I’d only given them a quick glance when they were delivered so it was nice to get them fully unpacked. Whilst I’m a ways of fitting them just yet I wanted to get the controls out so that I can start work on fitting them to the deckpod and also measure up for the throttle and gear cables.

I’m thinking of building a recessed box into the bulkhead next to the steering wheel to take these controls and now I have them to hand I can start when I’m ready.

That said with the timber for lashings strakes, decks, and rub rails arriving Monday I’m not going to be short of work for a while!