2nd May

Weather has been miserable here in Faial.  Put a stop to painting schedule.  Started some more fun stuff though.

First deck hatch cut out and and compass fitted.  

Teak hatch mounting frame ready for pre gluing (done).  It is a frame to be shaped to take the small curve of the deck to fit the flat shape of the hatch.  On the left are some strops waiting to be test stressed or broken. 1 x 6mm short strop with copper sleeves squashed by my little hydraulic crimper (16 ton).  1x 5mm strop with a copper crimp on one side and a Flemish wire splice plus crimp on the other. A 3mm and 6mm chineema strop with an eye spliced on each end.  Both strops have a too short buried taper to keep the strop short so will only be better when done properly.  My tractor still hiding down the road in a garage waiting for the rain to stop so testing on hold for a bit.

 30 th April

Beautiful day here in the Azores today.  No wind and nice and warm - perfect for painting!!  Got the deck done.  Finish not perfect by any means but will be covered with non slip (ordered) so hopefully all the bad bits will be hidden.  At least very well protected.

Postie delivered my 16 ton  hydraulic crimper so now I can start making test samples to do stress tests.  Going to make short samples of 5mm and 6mm ss (7by19) cable as well as 3mm and 6mm dyneema to test my splicing etc. 7x19 316 cable available here.  Going to use my tractor hydraulics and my 1000kg digital scale with a block and tackle system to get up to 2000kg stress - I figure that should be enough..  Plans call for 5mm 1x19 shrouds but that is difficult for me to crimp.  7x19 is much easier to crimp over an eye so opted for 6mm which is about the same breaking strain and only a fraction heavier. If all my testing and fiddling fails I will just have to go expensive and import.  My stainless steel idea is to use 6mm (7x19) shrouds and twin 5mm forestays (7/19).  If it goes bad after a few years it will be cheap for me to replace.   Also playing with Dyneema and going to do stress tests but not sure it will be allowed for the Challenge.  Great fun doing splices and making soft shackles though.

 Going to break some stuff to see how strong it is.  Watch this space and I will post all my results in the next week or so. If my small tractor is not up to it I have some friends with MONSTER tractors.

My mast and boom is under construction at the moment  from Trimet in Poland and should be shipped soon and sails from Narwal should be on their way soon as well.  Mainsail,  2 hank on foresails, 1 roller furl foresail, storm jib, and gennaker.   

Weather forecast looks lousy for the next days so not going to mix any paint and going to play with rigging stuff.

 29 th April

Had planned to go fishing today but still have about 15fish meals in the freezer and weather was good for painting.  Low humidity and warm.

Gave cockpit a light sand and the second coat yesterday and gave the rest of the deck its first coat today. 

Hope to give todays painting a light sand and the second coat tomorrow.

 27th April

Finished the sanding in the cockpit and went crazy with the vacuum cleaner and dust rags.  Even though my sander is operated with a vacuum connected there is always some residual dust left.

Put some plastic sheet suspended over the work area to prevent dust falling from the rafters as well as spider shit.  I wish there was a market for spider shit - I would be a rich man!!  I can vacuum the whole roof area one day and get rid of all the spider webs and spiders I can see and it will be covered in webs one day later.

Cockpit has its first coat of PU paint.  Just brushing it on as most of it will be covered with non slip.  Does not look too bad.  A quick rub over with 220 grit tomorrow and a second coat.  The weather is very good for painting at the moment.  60% humidity and 20c temp.  That is about as good as it gets in the Azores.  Hope to get the cockpit done tomorrow and on Monday will check if there are any triggerfish in the channel wanting to get eaten.  No wind and flat sea!!

 26th April

Companionway teak all glued in and screw plugs fitted yesterday.  Trimmed plugs and sanded all nice and smooth today.  Been doing more deck sanding with 220 and just got cockpit seats and floor to do before setting up plastic for painting tent.

 24th April

Busy day today!  Unfortunately not on Nuts.  Only spent 2 hours on sanding primer.  Port side and transom and 30% of deck nice and smooth ready for topcoat PU.  Garden starting to look nice though.

Started marking waterlines after nice boerewors braai. (sausage barbecue)   Going to put LWL 120mm above DWL.   Allowing plenty of antifouling above waterline for when loaded.  60mm boot top stripe and you will have to wait and see what the colour scheme and design will be.   Nothing outrageous but the name will be "Nuts"  (pun intended) 

 23rd April

Nothing exciting to report or show.  Just finished final painting of the deck frames and deckhead stringers inside.  Inside completely finished except for locker door hinges and catches, cooker gimball mounting and hand hold bars.  Also electrics need to be fitted.  Companionway getting glued in and washboards primed.  Bought deck and hull polyurethane paint and giving the outside primer a fine sand with 220 grit in prep for spraying.  Workshop also getting cleaned out so I can put up a spray "booth".