27th December

Hope you all had a good Xmas.  I consumed too many calories but had a festive few days so not too much progress.

Next section in forepeak glued in after drilling holes for mast wiring and cutting and fitting forepeak division to prepare for painting before gluing in. 

Galley slowly taking shape.

Still a way to go

 23rd December

As threatened I was up at sparrow fart and on the sea before the sun was up.  It was cold and choppy but persevered.  First squid got demolished on the way up from 240m deep and only got the head and tentacles.  Guess some happy shark is swimming around.  There was plenty of action and caught my 5 quota allowed.  Didnt take long.  Biggest 4.2kg which sprayed ink all over me and the boat.

Smallest just over 2kg.  Spent less than 1 hour on Nuts this evening just hand sanding a few bits and planning the next session.  Early to bed tonight.

 22nd December

Glued, screwed and ran a fillet around the cover of the flotation foam in the forepeak.  The orange nylon strap is under a section of the foam slabs that I can use for pulling them out if needed.  Once a few of the slabs are removed the rest are easy to remove.  The ply in the bow compartment has been epoxy saturated and will be ready for painting once cured and sanded.  The only way to remove the foam in the bow compartment will be with a jigsaw and a lot of swearing.

Weather looks good here for tomorrow so am going to try to head offshore in my little fishing boat and chase some squid.  Freezer getting low!

 21 st December

Filled the bow with foam sheets and then covered over with glued in  ply coated underneath and edges with epoxy to seal it.  Once glue dry can epoxy coat, prime and paint.

 19 th December

Been occupied with seasonal festivities the last days but did manage a bit.

Started fitting and shaping foam in forepeak that will be removable once the ply is epoxied and sealed over the top.  I estimate about 80kg of buoyancy extra once finished as well as in a good place (low down)

Also started filling bow compartment with closed cell foam and fixing in the 4cm thick sheets with spray foam.  You can see the tube on the port side that can be used for checking if there is any water in the bottom as well as sucking/pumping out.  I will keep on going up with foam sheets till the bottom of the inspection hatch / access for bow fitting bolts.  Once at the level of the bottom of the hatch I will seal off the foam.  The tube will allow for expansion / contraction of the remaining air so as not to build up + or -  pressure in the compartment.  Above the bottom of the hatch will be filled with easily removable foam to allow for inspection / service of bow fittings.

Chainplate bolt holes over drilled and filled with epoxy and redrilled and had chainplated refitted.  I will block the holes with plasticine for the glassing and fairing process on the outside when the time comes and just clear out the holes from the inside with a drill when done.

 14 th December.

Had to go to town today so popped into a friends workshop who has a huge hydraulic plate bending machine and put the angles on the chainplates.

 Bow chainplate with 20 degree bend -

Shroud chainplate prefitted with 32 and 22 degree bends for shroud and maybe a lower shroud. (guessed the angles but think they are close)  Lowers not on the plans but might be nice if heading into stormy areas.  Im fitting them now to get the hole positions so I can overdrill the holes with bigger holes to fill with epoxy.  I can then fit the bolts in solid epoxy for final fixing.  Okume plywood is softer than pine ply so am putting an extra 10mm bolt through the sheer stringer as well as having an extra 2 layers of epoxy glass on the outside in the area which you might be able to see in the photo.  I would like to have most of the fittings to be mounted onto the hull and deck made and fitted with reinforcing before glassing the deck.  

Inside of galley box now has its first coat of polyurethane paint.  Light sand and second coat tomorrow.

 13 th December

Galley drawer slides just fine and is nice and square so gave the galley box and drawer a sand and got primer going.

Will give this a sand with 240 in preparation for polyurethane paint.  While waiting for paint to dry I did a few small jobs.

Drilled and countersunk holes in windows.

 

Glued an aluminium tube in the bow compartment that can be used for testing if there is any water in the bottom once it is foam filled as well as pumping it out.

Started polishing chainplates.  First  sanded with grinder then 220 grit with orbital sander then 400 and 800 grit by hand and finishing with polishing compound on bench grinder with linen wheels.  Can get it nice and shiny but takes a long time.  Going to put the bends in before finishing the polishing.

 11 th December

Spent several hours working on Nuts over the last few days but not much to see.  Finished the painting under the port bunk.

Nice and shiny and happy with the result.

 

Galley box taking shape.  Took a long time of fiddling to make the drawer runners and locker door frame on the front and epoxy it all into position and make fillets to round off the joints inside.

Drawer frame all glued up and bottom cut.  Can do a trial tomorrow when epoxy hard to see if it fits.  If all is good I can give the inside of the box a sand and a coat of primer.  Then I can move onto some other jobs while I do the painting process inside the galley box so I can glue the top on and then continue building the galley up.

 8 December

Finished with house work for a while.  Fitted outside door handles and handed over keys to new tenants.  That was the last job finished today midday!!!!!

Took a drive down to the cliffs below our house to look at the sea.  Not easy to take pictures as gusting 40kts and only using phone.

There is water being blown off the surface in gusts.  The waves are over 5m but in the photo it looks just fine.  40+ kts of wind.  (just remember that this is not a storm but just a big blow for here).  The IMOCAS are racing passed us now in their single handed  -Return To Base_ https://www.imoca.org/fr/retour-a-la-base

These waves are higher than the length of Nuts.  Nice day for armchair sailing.

Jumped into Nuts late afternoon and epoxied window frames into position and tacked a galley compartment into position.

This is going to be a storage compartment for sleeping gear (sleeping bag / pillow) and there will be a cutlery drawer fitted just to the upper right for wine bottle cork screws and beer bottle openers and maybe some forks, knives and spoons for the occasional food.

Finished with house work for a while so hopefully will be updating with progress on Nuts most days in the near future.

 4th December

Yikes! this year is disappearing fast.  Used to enjoy working on houses but fed up now and just want to work on Nuts.  Got to eat though.

Did manage an hour or so each day of sanding and painting.

Covers of port bunk and locker lids plus some other bits.

Underneath port bunk after 1 coat epoxy resin, 2 coats epoxy primer and first coat of polyurethane topcoat.  Will give it a light sand with 240 grit tomorrow and final coat of PU.  Got to get it on early as humidity going up again.  Had a nice window of low (for here) humidity but going up to 90% for the next days.  Temperature not a problem as can heat my workshop.  If the worst comes to the worst I will just have to run the dehumidifiers.  My limits for epoxy and painting that I have decided on are 70% humidity and 16c temp.  (using specs from materials Im using). Have managed to keep below humidity levels and above temp levels so far.

When you are living in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a small island you have to take what you get with the weather.  Mild temperatures but high humidity.  I spend a lot of time looking at the sea and wonder how a 5m yacht will handle what is passing by.  I guess the most seaworthy vessel is a bottle with a cork well fixed in. (just dont hit a rock). Been on a bigger boat in bigger seas and been upside down and didnt like it.

 1st December

Still busy with house work but the humidity was nice and low today so spent a few hours on Nuts this evening.  Ran a heater inside the boat for a few hours to dry out humidity in the raw wood and coated the pine stringers with epoxy resin.

Hull plywood was epoxy saturated before assembly and only had to coat the stringers and chainplate ply doublers.  Going to let that cure and give it a sand and can then start with the epoxy primer paint and polyurethane overcoats.  Only doing below the bunk and inside of galley box for now.  

Still a week or two of house work to do but going to spend some time on Nuts as the humidity is going to be OK for a few days and dont need to run the dehumidifier.  Going to get a bit cold but just fire up the workshop heater which works a treat.