Out of the building cradle

On friday i lifted the Gig out of her building cradle ready to roll her over ready for final fairing & painting.

In the background are the rear doors to the shed, there is 1" clearance each side, and yes i have measured it!
I have worked out a good way of doing the stretchers but it will entail some stainless steel welding, I had better get some practice in!

Once rolled over i started fairing, didnt go well at first as the the filler i had skimmed her with clogged the sandpaper really badly, i identified the problem as the vinylester laminating resin i had used being unwaxed. This meant that the surface although cured had a faint tackiness. Remedy was to get a wide carbide scraper & scrape the surface layer off, several hours later with arms dropping of she was ready for a sand down & first coat of Hi build primer.
The hull is very fair & the time spent on the building jig was well spent.

The primer is a Hempels two part epoxy intended for superyachts, the local chandler has a job lot of the stuff. Downside was it stinks something awful & i had to open the doors & windows wide.
Overnight it had cured well enough for a rough sand up before the second coat.

The second coat went on this morning & by lunchtime was touch dry
Back to the sanding tomorrow if its cured enough!

Im looking forward to the not too distant future when you can see her out on the water not stuck in a shed!

More nice bits = progress!

Good progress today, she is starting to look like she might get wet sometime soon!
                                                                                           


Got the thwart knees all rounded off
with the router & fastened in along
with the rowlock blocks.
Thwart knees are laminated mahogany & are barely 3/4" thick.

I now have to figure a simple strong & light foot stretcher system, the rowers will sit slightly staggered.

This Gig is a real meld between modern GRP boatbuilding & traditional wooden construction, if i ever get as far as a production version it will have far less woodwork on it!

Weight wise i am pleased my son & i can pick her up one each end quite easily.

A day away from her tomorrow as i am in the home workshop, a friend is coming round to wire up a couple of machines for me,i might be able to build boats but i avoid wiring especially 3 phase!
First to be done is my trusty Harrison 140 metal lathe,
i need to get it running to turn up some custom rowlock pins.
The other is a Union graduate wood turning lathe, just come out of a school.

A man can never have too many tools!

Fitting the nice bits!

I have been busy this week fitting out, the new thwarts were bolted in today with their pillars & all the thwart knees are fitted. Also got the rowlock blocks fitted.

I have got the coamings on the fore & after deck.
More photos of the details tomorrow!

I Was hoping to have got more done but had an attempted break in last weekend, i had to spend some time doing repairs & applying anti climb paint to the edges of the roof. It is lovely stuff, thick non drying paint that gets everywhere.
Despite wearing gloves i had to throw my shirt away afterwards.
Its the price of having a workshop in a remote location but then friends had a yard broken into which was like fort knox with cameras & everything.
The fact that the building is insured along with everything in it gives peace of mind. However i dont leave power tools there overnight!