Launch Sites | "Mollie" & Change of Plan!

We settled on the 24th September for the big move back onto the trailer, and organised a crew of 'volunteers' to do the lift and shift.

So now would be a good time to discover suitable launch sites, while I had nothing outstanding to complete on the boat and a couple of weeks to spare.

One venue that I had long thought suitable was the Lake District, in northwest England. It is a lovely area, and would be good for a vacation as well as a place to launch and sail "Journey".

Fyne Boat Kits, who supplied the kit and most of the materials and equipment for this build, happen to be situated in the middle of the lakes, so I asked Phil (the owner) for advice.

He said that there is a good public launch site at Windermere, and another at Coniston Water. He said that Ullswater would be suitable too, but not to bother with Derwentwater - too small and shallow.

So off we went for a few days in the Lakes.

We found a lovely public launch site on Coniston Water, near the Bluebird café. But the access road was long, narrow and winding and taking a big trailer down there did not appeal.

We could not find anywhere on Coniston Water, so forgot about that.

Windermere, however, was excellent.

There is a really good gated public launch facility at Ferry Nab, with a good ramp and jetties, and pontoons to keep the boat on overnight.

This is it.

Please note - these pics are all from phones, so not up to the usual standard!

It has an impressive secure gated access, like this.

And here is the slipway itself. Note the two excellent jetties either side.

The warden was friendly and helpful, and the fees were not excessive, so we decided this would be a good place for a PocketShip adventure.

We then walked back along the lake through Bowness, which is the waterfront for the town of Windermere.

There are a number of pontoons along the front, and I was looking at the moored boats when I was astonished to spot a PocketShip tied up alongside.

We immediately went to investigate and were met by its owner, Peter.

He could not have been more friendly and helpful, and we spent a delightful hour or more talking with Peter and even having a trip around Belle Isle - under power rather than sail.

This is "Mollie", tied up at Bowness.

This is Peter, in the company of Alison (Mrs Boatbuilder).

Peter bought his PocketShip in 2025, fully built but unpainted and with no mast.

He painted and finished the boat and launched it this year, in 2026.

This included building his own trailer, so he did incredibly well. Much quicker than me!

Interestingly, he had a solid mast made by Frank Collar of Oxford - a well known UK spar maker. He said it weighs the same as the hollow, square mast specified in the plans and build manual. And it looks great. 

I learned many things from Peter, but here are some highlights.

Outboard Motor

Peter said an outboard is essential. He has a 2hp Mercury two-stroke, which propelled the three of us well enough on our trip.

But he says more power would be useful, and hinted that 3.5hp would be good.

From what I saw of the berths and pontoons at Bowness, you really could not get in or out without a motor.

So that is one definite learning point - we need an outboard!

This is "Mollie"s outboard from astern.

It is a short shaft motor on a lifting bracket.

Here is the view from inside the cockpit.

You can see that Peter has a shortened tiller specially for use with the motor. It was very handy in practice.

Steering was by rudder, with the motor going dead ahead.

Ballast

"Mollie" has 100kg of internal lead ballast, under the floorboards. Peter says this is plenty and demonstrated how stable the boat is by standing on the gunwale. It hardly dipped.

I though we had 80kg, but on checking I see that "Journey" also has 100kg under the floorboards, so we are the same.

Companionway Step

Peter has fitted a small elliptical step / seat inside the rear cabin wall, at the bottom of the companionway. It is supported by a bracket attached to the front of the centreboard case.

It is certainly a lot more comfortable to stand and sit on than the straight edge which we currently have.

Forward Deck Strengthening

Peter found that his forward deck flexed downward when supporting a person's weight, so he fitted three battens fore and aft between bulkheads 1 and 2 to stiffen it.

Launch Site

Peter had launched his boat at the Windermere Marina Village where he and his family had a rented holiday apartment, with its own mooring and slipway.

So... lots of things to think about.

I am definitely going to fit an outboard motor. I have been thinking about this for a long while, but I can now see it is a necessity.

And I think we will stay at the marina and make use of their slipway and mooring, some time next year.

And lastly here is Peter (and his wife) sailing "Mollie".

Note how the outboard is lifted out of the water on its bracket, and cocked up out of the way.

What a fabulous day! Thanks again Peter, if you get to read this.

Prettifying "Journey" | Cleaning & Polishing

"Journey" was effectively finished and ready to go back on the trailer, but she needed to be cleaned up before the final move.

Refinishing the hull had taken the best part of two years, what with all the trials and tribulations encountered along the way, and the paintwork had become rather dull and indeed dirty in places.

I sought advice on what products to use for cleaning and polishing Epifanes paintwork, and the ever-helpful Paul at BoatPaint suggested this.

It is an Epifanes product, and removes dirt and light oxidation while applying a wax shine.

It worked quite well, and certainly smartened her up. I applied two coats.

Here is the stern view.

And here she is viewed from the front.

That's much better! This is the transom, all shiny and new.

I was pleased with that, and so covered her up with dust sheets to preserve the finish.

Like this.

Now all we need to do is fix a date for the final move, and rustle up a crew!

Trailer | Getting Ready For The Move

With the boat complete and ready to move outside, it was time to prepare the road trailer for use.

It had been sitting on the driveway for a long while, waiting for its time to come.

Firstly I greased the tow ball and hitch and attached the trailer to the car. Then I connected the lighting board and tested the lights - they all worked fine.

Here are the car and trailer, ready to go.

Next came the trailer's very first road journey.

We only went as far as the nearest service station that has an air pump with a large enough bay to park the car and trailer.

The information embossed on the tyre walls showed that the required air pressure is 50psi.

After some fiddling around to get the air pump working, we found that the tyres were at a lowly 23psi - hardly surprising after three years without use.

So I filled the spare and both road tyres up to 50psi, and took the trailer home.

Time to schedule moving "Journey" onto her outside berth!

Centreboard | Final Touches

I wrote in a recent post about repainting the tip of the centreboard, following some minor repair work.

Three coats of gloss were applied which I assumed would be enough to cover the primer.

And it was, but the final coat dried to a very rough finish. I can only assume that a large amount of dust had found its way onto the wet paint.

So I wet sanded the tip again with a P400 grit, and carefully reapplied two more coats of gloss.

This time it dried with a lovely, smooth finish. Here it is.

Job done! There is nothing more to do now, so she is ready to go back outside.

Centreboard | Remedial Action

Some time ago I noticed that the centreboard had dropped slightly out of its case. And the tip was just resting on the cross member of the stern build cradle, which was stopping it from falling to the floor.

I didn't pay too much attention to it at the time, thinking that I could simply haul the board back up into its case and cleat it in place for the move onto the trailer when the time came.

Then a few days days ago, while working inside the boat, there was a loud bang from somewhere underneath.

I initially thought something must have failed and broken, but thankfully on closer examination I found that the centreboard had simply dropped to the floor. With a crash.

I checked it for damage and although nothing disastrous had happened I did see that the very tip of the board was bent over slightly to port.

It seems that the epoxy resin extension to the trailing edge of the centreboard had been compressed by the build cradle, and bent over slightly.

Here is a pic - you can't see the damage too well, but it's there. It is slight, however.

I was initially worried that the board itself my have been affected, with my weight moving around inside the boat exerting pressure on the dropped board via the stern cradle and thereby perhaps on the pivot pin through the keel.

I needed to make sure that the centreboard could move freely inside the case, so I could check for distortion. To do this I used my pair of bottle jacks to raise the boat very slightly and pushed the build cradle forward a fraction, thereby giving the board plenty of room for movement.

This is the jack at the front of the keel.

And here is the other jack at the stern.

That worked and I was then able to easily move the board up and down inside the case by hauling on the pendant. And everything was fine.

So all that I had to do now was repair the tip of the board.

I sanded it back to shape and applied a first coat of primer.

So far so good, but when I washed the brush in thinners - as usual - the paint on the brush 'curdled' or 'split'. There was something badly wrong with it!

The Epifanes paint and thinners were above suspicion, so it must be the brush. But why? And how?

I remembered that I had touched up inside the companionway, using the household paint that I used to paint the interior. And I had used the same brush to do it, just to paint two or three feet of framing.

Incredibly, something from that household paint had transferred to the brush and contaminated it - and very probably the Epifanes primer that I had just applied.

Something similar had of course happened before on an epic scale, causing me to repaint the whole boat.

I probably should have known better... but it still seems amazing to me that marine paint is so extraordinarily sensitive to contamination by 'alien' substances.

Luckily this was a tiny area of paint, so I simply sanded it clean and started again.

Here is the tip of the board, sanded back.

Three coats of primer followed, sanded between coats with a fine grit.

And then three coats of gloss were applied, wet sanded between coats with a P400 grit.

Here is the port side of the board, repainted and ready to go.

It's not perfect, but it really doesn't matter because no one will ever see it again. The main thing is that the tip is flat and smooth.

Likewise, I was a bit surprised to find that the gloss on the centreboard had yellowed slightly while entombed in darkness for a couple of years.

Again, it is unimportant because it will never be seen again.

Bit it still bugs me. I think paint has been the single biggest cause of headache and rework in this whole build.

Thank the Lord it's nearly over...

Companionway Slide | Making Turnbuttons

The matter of how to retain the companionway slide inside the hood has been bugging me for ages.

It's not practical to fit stops in the runner grooves in the side of the hood. That just wouldn't work - we need to be able to easily remove the slide when needed.

So a turnbutton of some kind seemed the best option.

I thought about making one from some scrap carbon fibre that I had, but it looked completely incongruous.

So I considered a piece of ash that I had left over, but it was too bulky and I didn't want to spend ages making something.

Then I discovered a length of sapele left over from the drop board retainers - just the right thickness and width!

I decided two would be required - one on each side of the companionway hood frame across the cabin roof.

So I made a pair and test fitted them. Here they are.

They prevent the slide from coming all the way out, as it would if pulled vigorously or when the boat is being towed on its trailer.

That'll work!

I cleaned up the buttons and varnished them - here they are with the brush.

They took nine coats to look presentable.

Then I fitted them. This is the starboard turnbutton, holding the slide in place.

And here are both turnbuttons with the slide partly open.

And lastly here they are with the slide closed.

That's one more job finished so she can move back outside on the trailer, sometime soon!

"Journey" | Applying Her Name

PocketShip was almost ready to move onto her next home - the trailer.

But before that could happen, she had to have her name added in its proper place

I had a vinyl name transfer made some time back, and it had been sitting in its box waiting for this moment.

So... I spent ages testing the position of her name on the transom.

Eventually I settled on this position, with the tops of the lower case letters in line with the bottom of the upper rudder pivot.

The laser level was helpful here.

Next a wide strip of masking tape was applied across the top of the application sheet, to act as hinge when fixing the letters in place.

Then the whole strip was lifted up and soapy water sprayed on the target area, to assist in repositioning the adhesive letters - if required.

The inner backing sheet was then removed and the letters pressed gently into place.

That went well, so I used an old plastic card to squeeze out any water and lastly peeled off the outer application sheet.

This revealed the boat's name in all its glory. Like this.

She is now properly Journey, and will be known as such from this day.