27 th February

Did a quick sand of the last area of primer and overcoated with PU topcoat (first coat).  Now the whole boat is covered with 1 coat of finish coat on the inside.

Left the paint to dry on a nice and warm day here with low humidity and wizzed off to buy another 3 sheets of foam for flotation.  14.03 euros per sheet which equates to 78kg of bouyancy per sheet if you use it all.

Cut into pieces without any wastage ready to be slid in through the access hatches. 

Aft foam installed.  All pieces are a loose fit and easy to remove through the hatches at the foot of the bunks.  Got a total of 410 cubic decimeters ( on the very conservative side to allow for the weight of the foam) Very happy with that.   I see no point of filling the cockpit coamings with flotation as it will only become effective if the hull sinks below cockpit seat level.  I could put more in but would rather put a bit more fwd.  Maybe not necessary as the empty water bottles will be stored under the bow bunk / lkr. and my buoyancy will increase by maybe 3kg per day and if not fully loaded with water I will have plenty of empty bottles stored under there.

My next job is to give the whole boat a light sand with 240 grit on the inside for the final coat of PU paint.  Not an enjoyable task so going fishing instead 😁

 26th February

Long time since an update.  I have spent several hours every day in the workshop but doing nothing exciting.  I have put on 2 coats of epoxy primer (with sanding in between) on top of the epoxy resin on the complete interior of Nuts.  This was after fitting some plywood doublers where cleats, push and pullpit will bolted on.  Also redrilled (and trial fitted)  all chainplates, stern drouge fixing points and bow towing/anchoring U bolt where I overdrilled the holes and filled with epoxy.  80% of the interior has its first coat of polyurethane finish coat and 10% has the second final coat on.  Deck ply has its first coat of PU finish coat on the underside.  I think I will give it the final coat before fitting so most of the surface will be painted and only have to do the deck beams and deck stringers once the deck is glued on and the epoxy fillets are done.  I dont like working with epoxy paint / PU paint fumes in a confined space so doing as much as possible before closing up the hull.  Finished all the painting in the bow and stern compartments so started filling with foam.

I cut slabs of 50mm thick foam sheet and had to plan it so I could fit and remove it through the hatch in the bulkhead.  Must be removable for access to the inside of the fixings that will be on the foredeck.  Not a tight fit so can jiggle the sheets out from inside the boat and refit. (tested)

A view from inside the forepeak.  I did a test with empty PET bottles and the best flotation I got was 50kg (in the bow top)  ie. 50 liters of empty bottles.  I tried with various size bottles to get the most flotation but there was always a lot of space between bottles.  I decided to go with foam and got close to 70kg of flotation in the same space even though I didnt try to make a tight fit.  I measure each piece of foam and calculate the cubic decimeters to get the kg buoyancy.  Fwd buoyancy flotation is now finished - however I might add some more under the bunk in the forepeak.  After all I am building my liferaft at the same time.

Started fitting foam flotation in the stern compartment.  That is 92.5kg of flotation so far and the foam weight 2.8kg.  Also making it a loose fit so it can be removed through the hatches.  The stern compartment will end up with over 400kg of flotation and I want to balance the bow and stern flotation.  There is a lot more plywood in the aft half of the boat which is buoyant as well.  I would be a bit happier with some more emergency flotation close to the bow.  The requirement is 700kg total  and I am hoping to have a bunch more than 800kg buoyancy.  

 21st February

Very boring morning working on Nuts.  Sanding primer and giving it a second coat.  Not worthy of a photo.

Did zoom into Horta marina in the afternoon (waiting for primer to dry is my excuse) to check out the Ultime doing a pitstop.  These things are HUGE. Edmond de Rothschild is making its first stop and is looking a bit battle scarred.

Aft wing a bit damaged

A big piece of fairing missing from the stbd fwd wing.

Notice there is a person near the clew of the mainsail on top of the boom.  

The shore team were very busy doing repairs and service  on the port foil and stbd rudder.  Im sure there are plenty of things to service and I believe they will be here for 48 hours instead of the 24 hours minimum.  More favorable for the weather on the last stretch and safe in first position with the record long gone .

Spent this evening doing a major service on my Raymarine ST 1000+ autopilot for my little fishing boat.  It was making a strange noise last Sunday so took it to bits.

Discovered some bad problems on the drive shaft but fortunately had an old ST 2000 without any electronics and have converted my 1000 into a 2000.  Still got to test it at sea as swopped motors as well and the 2000 ram moves a lot faster than the 1000.  I think I will modify the insides to put cutoff switches to limit the ram from reaching the end as that is what caused the damage.  Found some solutions on Youtube.

Back to more sanding and painting tomorrow - boring!!

February 20th

4 days since update.  Went fishing on Sunday and had good luck.  4 families had fresh fish for dinner.  I enjoy fishing as well as giving fish to friends and neighbours.

My dinner done on the barbecue.  Delicious!

Nuts was in slow motion but did get the deck ply epoxy coated on the bottom and first coat of epoxy primer.

Also epoxy primed a bunch more on the interior.  Im trying to get a lot of the smelly chemical stuff done before the deck is glued down.

Also epoxied plywood doublers on the underside of the foredeck and ply near the transom for reinforcement of the push and pullpit and mooring cleats.  The doublers were epoxy coated, sanded and primed at the same time.  

Weather in the Azores is perfect.  Nice and warm with low humidity.  (for here)

Lost half a days work yesterday.  😄 Made contact with a very good friend from school days (last contact almost 20 years ago) and spent almost 5 hours on a WhatsApp call.  Jeff did really well and was founder of Gemini Inflatable Boats.  Now building a 49ft steel boat in retirement after finishing a 40 footer which he sold.  We built our 9m Lavranos yachts together in his back yard a million years ago.  Lots of stories from hooligan days but those shall remain private.😁

 16 th February

Got my slow shoes on.  Weather been crappy and late out of bed in the mornings.  One of the priviledges of getting old.

Did something though.

Pre fitted deck ply for testing fairness.  Was surprised with the stiffness without any glue or glass.  The small compound curve provides great stiffness while still being possible with a sheet of 8 mm ply.  The designer (Janusz Maderski) is either a very lucky guy and made hundreds of good guesses or he is  a smart cookie.  I am pretty sure I know which is true.  

All ply removed and coated on the underside  with epoxy and peelply in preperation for painting and fitting.

Weather very crappy here at the moment but temp in workshop nice and warm (thanks to old tractor hydraulic oil) but humidity is pretty high.

Pulled the peelply off the foredeck ply this evening in the dark just to check out the light show. Was not dissapointed.  (If you dont understand ask Mr Google.)

Been watching windguru, meteo pt and wind finder and hopefully will venture out the marina on Sunday to check if there are any fish wanting to be eaten!

 13 th February

Took a gap from house painting.

Faired in the deck stringers and put the ply on top to get an idea of how it was working out.

Cut and pre fitted foredeck.  Also drilled mounting bolt holes for forestay chainplate and gave it a trial fit.  I have long arms and just managed to  reach the nuts on the inside through the hatch.

Cut out inner forestay chainplate from 316 plate and gave it a grind, sand , drill and polish and gave it a prefit.  Happy with the result.  There will be a separate eyebolt for the tack of a storm jib or safety harness fixing point. Im not sure if it will be allowed for the Atlantic Challenge  but at least it will be all ready to go.

This evening I filled all the previously overdrilled holes that had not been filled yet as well as the new ones from today.  

House painting while the epoxy cures then I can redrill the holes through the epoxy and do a final test fit before starting the deck covering process.   

 9 th February

Been a bit sidetracked.  Decided to paint the inside of our house.  Did manage a few bits on Nuts though.

I drilled and prefitted the mounting straps for the storm drouge on each side of the transom as well as the eyebolt in the bow for towing and anchoring.  Now I can over drill the holes and fill with epoxy and then redrill in the middle of the epoxy. Also did the top pintle of the rudder at the same time (bottom pintle already fitted and finished).

Made some deck stringers and routed and sanded them before epoxying them in to stiffen the deck a bit..  I only made them 35mm thick to avoid head bashing inside the cabin as I am tall.  I plan to put in vertical tubes for handholds (aluminium) inside the cabin.

I did not forget to fit my lucky Madalan coin which is now epoxied in just below the mast step!

 4th February

Nice weather in the Azores the last days so spent time in the garden etc.  but did experiment with my pipe bender.  

It did not go well.  I bent some aluminum tube for a first test and it was fine.  Then I dragged my workbench around the workshop.  I didnt have enough power to bend the ss tube and my workbench  (which the pipe bender was clamped to)was too light.  Today I welded a plate on a 3m long steel square section (100x100) to mount the bender on and used a 2.5m long tube on the handle.  With the whole catastrophe fixed on a big trailer I managed to bend the tube with ease. 

It works fine but leaves a bit of a kink at the end of the bend.  Well I guess you get what you pay for.  It will pass the 10 foot test (looks fine from 10 feet away).

Also got a bit more primer down.  

 2nd February

Went fishing today and bashed my brains out in a choppy sea. Long SW swell with SE wind chop against current.  Got a bit of a sunburn and caught almost nothing.  All small and released to grow bigger.  Nice day on the sea though.

Fetched my stainless tube (316L) for the pullpit and pushpit on the way home as well as some tig welding rods.  Just got to  practice now to weld it. Long time since tig welding.  Pipe bender ready for testing.

Fortunately I have some scrap 25mm ss tube to practice on and a big bottle of argon.

Also glued and put fillets on galley bits so I can start painting.

Just got to let epoxy cure and give it a sand and can then start the epoxy, primer and PU paint process.  This is the last bit of interior construction work.  The rest is finishing work.  Going to measure up for upholstery and Mrs Nuts will get busy with ordering foam and fabric and fighting with her sewing machine.  She is pretty good at that.  Will be her 4th boat.

She is not afraid of a challenge.

 31st January

As windguru predicted it was a beautiful day today in the middle of the Atlantic so Nuts had the day off.  I went with my flask of coffee towards the south of the channel between Pico and Faial and dropped some bait 200m deep to see what would happen.  Well- waited about 5 seconds once the hooks reached the bottom (use about 800grams lead sinker) and started feeling bites. I use circle hooks so dont have to strike the fish and just chill and let them get on with it.  I pressed the go button on the electric reel and got 3 fish. (use 3 hooks).  It never stopped.

It almost seems unfair.  Most of my time fishing is spent waiting for the hooks to reach the bottom and the electric reel winding the fish up. Only a few seconds on the bottom.  Im not complaining though.  4 families eating fresh fish tonight.  I give most of my fish away.  We have a quota of fish per boat and person in the Azores and I make sure I do not go over.

The most beautiful fish. Only its mother would love it but tastes like lobster. Type of scorpion fish caught in deep water here which is highly prized - just dont get stabbed by the spines as they are poisonous. Also had a great show from dolphins (one even ate a mackerel I caught and threw to it)  Back to Nuts tomorrow.  Epoxy, sandpaper and primer again!!!  

Weather looks good for a few days so maybe do a bit more fishing Friday.