Trailer | New Bow Roller

With the buoyancy problem solved in the lazarette, attention turned to applying the final coat of paint to the upper hull.

One obstacle remained, however. Spring has sprung, meaning that gardening is high on Mrs Boatbuilder's agenda. That always involves frequent access to the tool shed via my workshop, and disturbance to whatever I am working on.

This is not ideal when painting is underway, so another outstanding task has been completed instead.

When we first put the boat on its trailer it was immediately obvious that the foremost roller was too small.

In this pic you can see that it is too low and way too small.

I talked to the excellent Dave at SBS, who built my trailer. I asked him for a roller with a longer arm to replace the existing one, but he thought that would be a bad idea because being so long it could easily bend.

Instead he suggested making a bigger roller to attach further forward on the drawbar. I sent him a photo of PocketShip on the trailer, and he asked me to measure the height to the bow at the point shown on this pic.

It was 26.5cm.

SBS then made a new and bigger roller for me, with a narrow foot to fit the drawbar on my trailer. It sat on a shelf until now, waiting for the boat to go back outside.

So I installed it today, not being able to do any painting.

This is it.

That's another job ticked off the to do list!

Lazarette | Buoyancy Installation

The first thing I decided to do before starting painting again was to complete the installation of buoyancy in the lazarette.

I started this in February, before we left for the southern hemisphere. I did harbour hopes of completing the work before our departure, but as usual I was being overly optimistic!

I would surmise that this requirement was originally overlooked when building the prototype, because as far as I can remember it isn't mentioned in the manual.

It only appears on drawing #11, which shows slabs of closed cell foam situated underneath the footwell, between the sole and the bottom of the hull.

It calls for 1.38 cubic feet of foam, or 88lb (40kg) of flotation.

I have seen photos of foam sheets jammed unceremoniously in place, and it looks awful!

Other builders have solved the problem in two ways.

Some have extended the footwell sides down to the bottom panels and others have extended the footwell sole horizontally out to the hull side panels, thereby creating an airtight space.

I only realised that something would be necessary after I had completed the hull, so I had left it too late for either option.

I thought about it for months, and eventually decided to strap buoyancy bags underneath the footwell.

This would allow me to remove the buoyancy for cleaning and maintenance, or if extra space was required.

I found that a pair of Crewsaver 18 litre buoyancy bags just about satisfied the requirement, at 36 litres in total.

My plan was to secure the bags in place with webbing of the type used for sailing dinghy toe straps.

Here are the inflated bags.

And here are the fittings to hold them in place.

We require two pairs of strapping bridges, fastened to the footwell sides with 5mm pan head screws.

The straps are made from 25mm braided tape, secured with two pairs of adjustable sliding buckles.

I did a test fit by holding the bridges in place with Blu Tack, just to see if it worked.

Like this.

And here is a close up of the buckle.

That all seemed to work just fine!

So, on our return from Tasmania I very carefully measured out and marked up the position of the strapping bridges, and drilled the pilot holes for the screws.

This is the tool kit required for the job.

Then the fittings were installed and the bags strapped in place.

This is the starboard buoyancy bag, fully installed.

And here again is a buckle in close up.

The final task was to mark off the required length of the straps, like this.

And then cut them both to equal lengths with the hot knife, using an upturned cup as an anvil, like this.

That's it. Job done!

The bags and straps were then removed and stored away to await refitting when painting is complete.

Back In The Workshop!

We returned from our trip to Tasmania a short while ago, so it was time to get back in the workshop and get ready to finish PocketShip.

First I tidied whatever mess I left behind when we left in early February, and put all the tools and paint away.

Then I vacuumed and washed the floor to get rid of accumulated dirt and dust, in readiness for painting.

Lastly I washed all the surfaces to be painted on the boat.

This wasn't a lot of fun, so finished up with with one of these.

It's good be back. Cheers!

Ballast Bags | Making & Filling

With time on my hands and unable to do much in the way of painting I decided to make the ballast bags.

The build manual states that a minimum of 36kg should be stowed either side of the centreboard case, beneath the removable floorboards. It adds that more might be required for sailing solo or lightly loaded, and suggests that adding 50% more would not be too much.

I decided to go for 100kg in total and see how she sails. I can always add or remove ballast, as required.

I purchased 100kg of lead pellets many moons ago, when I thought I was close to launching. They are offcuts from some manufacturing process; small and ideal for this purpose.

This is what they look like.

At the same time I selected a waterproof material called Phifertex to make the bags, and worked out that I would need fourteen bags - ten holding 8kg and four holding 5kg.

The bags would need to be 13" long and 6 1/2" wide to fill the bilge compartment, so I cut enough 13" squares to make the bags. They were ready to go when needed.

The sewing thread needed to be waterproof and rotproof, and suitable for use on a domestic sewing machine. I found that this type of thread is called V69, and I purchased a spool of the Invincible brand.

The services of Mrs Boatbuilder were now required. I have absolutely no idea how to operate a sewing machine, but she is an ace.

Here she is sewing the sides of the bags together.

And here are some empty bags. You can see that we left a gap in one corner to fill them with lead.

The bags were then filled using a ladle and a funnel to pour the pellets into each bag, like this.

I clamped each filled bag shut until they could all be sealed. Here they are.

Luckily the sewing machinist was available immediately, and here she is sealing the bags.

We took the machine into the workshop rather than move 100kg of lead into the house and back again.

And here is the finished article.

Very neat and tidy.

And miraculously this entire activity was accomplished in a single day, which is completely unheard of in this build!

That was fun.

I stashed the finished bags away in a corner, ready for installation at launch time. Whenever that might be... 

Dorade Box Interiors | Applying Gloss

The interiors of the Dorade boxes had received five coats of primer, so I now applied the first coat of gloss.

I painted the rear faces through the ventilator holes with a long handled brush, made by taping a brush to a stirring stick.

Here it is.

The rest of the interiors were painted with a brush and a roller via the inspection hatches in the cabin wall.

The finish doesn't matter too much since the inside surfaces are not visible, but I will still try to make them presentable.

Companionway Hood Interior | Applying the Final Coat

I wanted to complete the interior of the companionway hood, so when the finished top and bottom surfaces were cured I painted the sides.

I applied four coats, sanding with an abrasive nylon pad between coats.

I did the same to the fourth coat, but I wet sanded the side areas which would be visible with a P400 grit. The rearmost parts of the sides are visible when the slide is open.

This is how it looks after the fifth and final coat.

I'm pleased with that. Another task I can tick off as complete!

Tabernacle | Reapplying the Final Coat

I thought it would be easy to complete the show coat on the tabernacle before we leave for the southern hemisphere.

So I wet sanded the whole thing with a P400 grit to get a good surface, as instructed by the technical instructions. Like this.

Then I applied the fifth coat to the outside faces, adding 5% Epifanes Easy Flow to condition the paint.

I thought this would work on a small surface area, but it didn't. A mixture of orange peel finish, brush marks and dry edges marred the results.

Here it is.

I'm not sure if the relative humidity was the problem, or the fact that the paint was several weeks old. I could see and feel it was not flowing out as expected.

So off it all came. Here I am wet sanding the new paint.

Here is the tabernacle, ready for fresh paint.

I am not sure when or even if I will try again before we leave. But I will certainly use fresh paint...

Onwards and upwards!