27th November

Only spent a few hours on Nuts in the last days.  It has been very humid so not doing any epoxy work or painting. (nice and warm though).  I am busy on some renovation work on a house which needs to be finished as soon as possible.  I have managed to do some epoxy work and painting preparation though and as soon as possible I will get the workshop dehumidifier going and make a bit of progress.

 23rd November

Got a few hours of time on Nuts this afternoon.

Window polycarbonate was cut and routed last night and made some frames for the inside today.  Im fitting frames (10mm) on the inside to make the ply thicker for longer fixing screws.  Still have to drill and countersink fixing holes in polycarbonate.

Fitted frames ready for gluing into position (both sides). I will cut the holes with a router once the deck is glassed and faired.

 22nd November

Just got back home after a few days on the island of Sao Miguel helping sister Nuts after getting a brand new airport beep in the security scanner implanted in her hip.  Just checked Nuts and it is "floating" nicely in the workshop waiting for some more attention.  

Attention coming soon!

 18 th November.

Lazy day.

Stbd bunk tops and lockers finished with painting.  Maybe Im going over the top but it makes me happy.  1 layer of epoxy resin (2 in some places), 2 coats of epoxy primer and 2 coats of polyurethane top coat.  All light sanded between coats and done within less than 24 hours between coats (except for epoxy resin coating which was done before building the hull using peel ply.)

Looking inside a locker.

All that boring work and you can see nothing.  Now I can glue the bunk top down and forget.  Going to fiddle with other things more interesting for a bit before I tackle the port side.  This evening I reshaped the windows to get a bit more pleasing shape (for me).  Got very little area for play as limited by the size of my polycarbonate.  Plan calls for 6mm pc. but got 8mm.  Pc. has a lower UV resistance but is many times stronger.  The stuff I got has a UV protection coating which should make it last a bit longer but at least it is bullet proof and stronger than the ply it will be fixed to.  One thing less to worry about in a storm.

 16 th November

Still plodding along with sanding and painting.

Second coat of epoxy primer under stbd. bunk.

First coat of polyurethane paint.  Just using up paint I have and will overcoat with a light grey for the second and last coat.

Managed to buy some polycarbonate for the windows.  No offcuts of 6mm available and didnt want to buy 2 square meters but managed to get some 8mm a bit smaller than I would have liked.  The cutouts in the templates will be the size of the polycarbonate and the actual holes they cover will be a bit smaller.  I also have 2 small deck hatches so there should be plenty of light inside.

 14th November.

As promised nothing exciting is happening.

Second coat of epoxy primer on lots of pieces of plywood (on top of 1 coat of epoxy resin).  Also coated stbd side of cabin with epoxy resin where it has not been covered before.  Painting takes a lot of time with sanding in between and not much to show.

 12 th November.

Relaxing Sunday.  Jumped into bow section (well maybe ambled slowly- very slowly) and gave  the primer a good sand with 240 grit to smooth everything out.

Then painted with 2 part polyurethane paint.  It is nice and shiny and looks good.  The colour is a light grey as it is paint I had left over from my fishing boat.  Going to buy more of the same colour as I like it for the bilges and inside lockers.  The bow and stern flotation compartments might end up in funny colours as I have plenty of dark blue and Turquoise polyurethane paint left over from the same project.  Nobody will see it and it is just for protection.

 Covers for bow section also painted in polyurethane on the underside.  Almost ready for gluing into position and then can move up.  Not much exciting is going to happen in the next days as I am going to concentrate on sanding and painting in non seen places but I will keep updating progress even if it is uninteresting to some.   Also spent much time and glasses of wine sitting inside the cabin planning all the wiring paths as well as plumbing for drainage of compartments, fitments of bilge pumps and battery storage etc, etc,

One very interesting thing has happened,  The Clube Naval de Lisboa has made a potential proposal for starting the Setka Atlantic Challenge in Lisbon and offering all the entrants support before the start.  From what I understand the official start of the Atlantic Challenge is still in Sagres but there is a possibility of a pre transatlantic "race" to Sagres.  Im all for it and going to express my interest and thanks to the Club tomorrow.  What a wonderful place to start the adventure!!

 11th November

After a light fine sand I gave a second coat of epoxy primer to what I painted yesterday as well as some of the stern flotation compartment to use up mixed epoxy primer.  It is my go to area to use up leftovers so as not to waste paint.

Cut and fitted seat reinforcing for starboard side.  Now I can mark the undersides of the cockpit seats so I can mask off the glue contact areas and paint the rest.

 10th November.

Lousy weather in the Azores at the moment.  Nice and warm but windy and rain.  Shut the workshop door and turned the music up and got busy.

First job was to glass the stabilizer fins and then jumped into the bow with sandpaper and gave the forepeak a good sand.  After lunch epoxy primed the forepeak below bunk level as well as the underside of the ply that will be glued on when painting is finished.

The forepeak ply and tabs on the work bench.  Tomorrow I can remove the peel ply on the tabs and clean them up and shape and glass the ends.  Also hoping to give the primer a quick wizz over with fine sandpaper and a second coat.

Set up the anti lung killing ventilation system for epoxy painting in the forepeak.  The end of the tube goes over my head and I get nice fresh air and keep cool with no fumes.

Cut and fitted cockpit reinforcing strips that will be glued in when ready for fixing the cockpit seat.  Still lots of painting and fittings to drill and prepare for mounting before I close up the area.

 November 9th

Been a long time since an update.  Not much progress in the last week.  Mrs Nuts had an operation on  her foot and was / is out of action for a while.  All is good and she should be 100% soon.  Boat building took a back seat for a bit but decided to get back on track now so started making the stabilizing fins. 

Printed a foil section I chose (NACA 0015) to scale and glued the shape to the edge of glued plywood.

I then cut groves with the table saw to assist with shaping.

Then attacked with a nice sharp chisel and block plane, belt and random orbital sander.

All nicely smooth and straight.  Cut the glass and peel ply ready for glassing tomorrow.  

Weather forecast lousy for the next days so can hide in the workshop.  Mrs Nuts semi mobile now so I am redundant in the house. 

 3rd November

Drilled and bolted bottom pintle into position.

Welded up 4mm 316 stainless backing plates and fitted onto web that has a total of 20 layers of glass in this area.  I think the rudder will break before this pulls out.  Once this was all fitted I removed it all and drilled out the 10mm bolt holes to 17mm diameter.

I coated the inside of the holes with epoxy (ply and frame timber) to let it soak into the wood then filled with epoxy mix.  Once cured I will redrill the 10mm hole in the middle.  This way hopefully there is no chance of moisture getting into contact with wood if there was ever a leak past the bolts.

Got to wait for epoxy to cure so faired in the tops of the bulkheads and frames and rebated the ply doubler down the middle of the coachroof.

 1st November

Been busy with other projects but did manage a few bits on Nuts in the last days.  Been playing with stainless steel and welding machine.

Welded up the rudder pintles and cut out the chainplates.  

Bow chainplate is set up for a single or double forestay.  Double will be used for the Atlantic Challenge with hank on jibs and the single forestay will be used with the furler for other sailing trips.  Furler is sitting in a box here waiting to go!! (not approved for the challenge)   The shroud chainplates are set up for the standard rig with a single shroud as well as an extra fixing point for lower shrouds for extreme sailing conditions.  I will also put an inner forestay chainplate on the frame just aft of the bow which can be used as a fixing point for a safety harness when not used as  mast support.  I will put on an inner forestay and lower shrouds for the trip back to the Azores from  the Caribbean.  Done this trip before and had mostly light winds but got hammered in the last days. This Setka is getting heavy!!!  Going to do a weighing session soon.  Got to keep in the rules.!!  Next metal work project is the inside backing plate supports for the bottom pintle which is a Carter modification - hope they approve.

Also been messing about with the galley.  Im happy with the cooker gimbal plan so now Im trying to sort out shelves / storage etc.  Watch this space - it is going to EXPAND!  (I like my food)