30th March

Happy Easter everybody - Boa Pascao 

Been in slow mode for several days as weather has been cold, windy and rainy.  Well that is my excuse.  I have been looking for any excuse to not fill and sand epoxy filler!!  There has been a bit of progress though.

Been attacking cockpit and almost done,  Just a bit of filling in small blemishes and sanding out again in 2 days time.  (I like to let the epoxy cure for 2 days before sanding)

Plywood edge of window cutouts epoxied and will give a sand in a couple of days.

Cockpit looking aft.  Still a bit of hand sanding in the corner radii. 

Oak mast base epoxied down.  Got to put epoxy fillets around the contact area and saturate the oak with epoxy.  I like using the white oak as it has a very open grain and absorbs epoxy very well.  Also looking at hatches and Dorado vent  positions.  I have sailed in tropical waters for several years and know how hot it gets.  Ventilation is super important.  

Starting to look at wiring and electronics.  I have all the electronic components that will be fitted (except Epirb) and am going to give them  a test to see what the 24 hour Ah consumption is.  Ais, VHF, and do a charge on the phone and tablet and Inreach and run some led lights for a few hours.  It is a pity LiFePo4 cells are not allowed but I understand the issues.   I have 8 x100Ah Winston cells and a very good BMS which I kept from my canal cruiser.  I will use 4 cells before and after the "race" and have to buy a lead battery for the crossing.  Will be interesting as I will have an electric trolling motor for marinas.

 28th March

Still sanding and filling.  Got worn out so cut out the windows for something different to do.

Still plenty of sanding and filling to do.  At least now I can epoxy the plywood edge of the window cutouts and prepare for priming and painting.

 26th March

No pictures but cockpit and transom sanded and touch up filler done this evening.  Another day or so and can start on the topsides.  Filling and sanding is not fun but the more I do the less still to do!!

 25th March

Nothing exciting to report.  Done the filling and started sanding.

Deck top had first sanding session and ready for touch up filling.  Working on cockpit sanding next.  Im going to finish sanding and filling the deck and cockpit and then lift up and tip the boat a bit to finish the sides.  Still many days of work before undercoat.  

 22 nd March

Nothing too exciting today.  Mixing epoxy filler and messing with log splitter and chainsaw for next winter.

Managed to put a bit of filler down though.

Just a light skim to fill the glass weave and to fair the overlaps on the edges. It does not take much as used peelply on all the glass work.

Glueded up a sanding pad.  80 grit on some rigid foam 600 mm long to get ready for the fun part of sanding.  I will first break off the epoxy glaze with a shuffle sander (or random orbital) which ever fits- connected to a vacume cleaner.  I have found that the foam sanding pad works very well and can take the curves and get a fair finish.  It is what I have and costs nothing so is a good deal.

Was hoping to go fishing with sister Nuts tomorrow for triggerfish but wind is up a bit so will be very uncomfortable so put on hold.  Guess back to epoxy mixing.

 21st March

Weather beautiful so went fishing with my buddy Steve.

Obviously heading in the right direction in the "stormy Mid Atlantic" with a commercial boat passing us on the way to our fishing spot selected.  Very carefully selected by throwing some sticks in the air and breathing in deeply.  Had great success and never waited more than a few seconds for a bite.  Fishing quite deep (170m to 200m) so takes a long time to drop down and reel up.  Took just over 2 hours of fishing to get our legal quota on my license so headed home. 

Spent ages cleaning fish and gave a bunch to our freezer and our neighbors.  Guess what is for dinner tomorrow.

Felt guilty at having fun so mixed some filler and screeded the deck this evening.  Tomorrow is another day and should mix some more filler.  I like the filler to go off for several days to get nice and cured before starting to sand.  It stops the sandpaper getting clogged and is much easier to sand.

re Raymarine autopilot conversion.  I did the experiment and it worked out perfectly.  I have a Raymarine St1000 plus that had issues from going to the stops at the end of the ram movement that bent up the supports and did damage to the ram infrastructure.  I also had an old St 2000 plus tiller pilot without any electronics.  I swapped out all the good bits from the 1000 (electronic board and motor) and fitted it to the 2000 ram.  The rams are very different.  1000 is just a threaded rod and the 2000 has a different thread system.  The 2000 is much faster.  (same motor).  From my doctor google searches it seems that the electronics are the same.  It also seems that the software built into the board supports both pilots.

I tried reprogramming the board and it worked perfectly.  Im sure every Raymarine agent has the instructions but why pay them.  This will work both ways - same board from 1000 to2000 and vice versa.

1. press minus 10 degrees and plus 1 degree until display shows 1000 or 2000 - about 5 secs.

2. press minus 10 degrees and plus 1 degree again till the number flashes - about 5 seconds.

3. select correct pilot number you want  by pressing plus 1 or minus 1.

4. save settings by pressing minus 10 and plus 1 till normal standby screen appears - about 2 seconds or a bit longer.

This works.  You just have to do the recalibration of the compass after the change.  (the slow turn in calibration mode)

 20th March

Finished the last of the glass work on the deck and removed the peelply and gave it a sand.  Filled all the bolt holes for the stainless steel fittings with plasticine so can fill over without blocking the holes.  

Started with the fairing filler.

Just a little but got my workshop tidied up a bit with the glass and peelply equipment into storage so ready for lots of filling starting soon.

Weather really good here in the middle of the Atlantic so going fishing tomorrow.  Aiming for deep dropping (200m)  south of Pico as well as doing the reprogramming of my Raymarine autopilot which has to be done on the boat.  If it works I will share what I did on the blog.

 18th March

Did the last of the laminating today.

The companionway bulkhead was a bit fiddly and used up offcuts of peelply.

The last of the transom was also covered.  After  pulling off the peelply and giving it a sand I want to glass inside the drainage holes.  There is some glass in the holes already but didnt want to fiddle too much today to avoid bubbles.  

 17th March

Cockpit seats sanded and ready for fairing.  Footwell of cockpit glassed (peel ply still on the bottom).  Only have the top bit of companionway bulkhead and top strip of transom left to do then finished with glassing.  Looks good for fishing later in the week so hope to get all the glassing done before then.  Also want to test my Raymarine st1000/2000 conversion.  I found the method to reprogram the electronics and hope I have not killed it.

 15th March

Glassed the cockpit seats and sanded the deck in preparation for screeding with epoxy and micro balloons.

 14th March

Started epoxy glassing the deck.

Second glassing session in preparation.  Section over companionway glassed and peel ply removed. - done yesterday.

Last of deck epoxy glassed over and covered with peel ply.  Next job is the cockpit.  Glass cut and ready to go for tomorrow.  I should slow down as once the sheathing is finished I have to screed and sand to get a finish for painting.  That is the worst job about building a boat.  At least the interior is 99% finished with just some touch up painting on the underside of deck glue joints.

Started the process for registration in Poland and found an extremely efficient agent who will process my registration and MMSI for radio,ais and EPIRB.  I just have to get Nuts closer to completion  with all documentation before the application can be made.

Got to pull my finger out and get out of bed before lunchtime. 😁

 12 th March

Epoxy glassed the deck edges this afternoon and covered with peelply.  Also spent some time vacuuming up spider webs in the roof beams.  Constant problem here in the Azores.  

Tomorrows job is to prepare glass and peelply for the big glassing session.  Temperature not a problem the next days but high humidity.  

 11th March

Transom with drainage holes.

Cockpit all filleted and sanded.  Also sanded whole deck with 120 grit so now ready for glassing.

 10th March

Just a quickie.  Been preparing deck ply for glassing.  Doing fillets in all the corners and cut the cockpit seat and floor drain holes. Also rounding off all the hull and deck sharp edges.   I guess one more day and ready for starting glassing.  It is not a quick job as I have to wait for epoxy filler to get hard before sanding.  Weather has been nice so been in the garden but that is ending tonight with lots of wind and rain forecast for the next days.

 8th March

Removed the foam out of the aft flotation compartment.  Did it through the hatches at the foot of the bunk and it worked out just fine.  Then epoxied in an aluminum tube through the aft bulkhead to use for draining out the compartment and to check if there are any leaks.  Then glued in the cockpit floor.

Floor with screws removed and holes filled in with epoxy filler. (done this evening after glue had gone off).

Cut out and glued on ply reinforcement for the deck cleats.

You can see some of the foam sheets which will be reinstalled tomorrow.  I left them out while epoxy is going off in the aft compartment as dont want them to get stuck in.

Postman brought me some goodies including -

I will only get a subscription once Nuts is launched so plenty of time to read the manual.

 7th March

Did some bits on Nuts this afternoon.

Glued the cockpit seats down early afternoon and just removed screws and filled the holes tonight. (10pm).  I did not glue down the cockpit floor as I forgot to put in a drainage system.  Will do that first thing and then can glue down the floor tomorrow.  Then the strip of ply for deck reinforcement where all the cleats will be fitted can be made and glued into position.

 6 th March

Finished the last coat of PU paint on the whole interior Monday so very little smelly stuff to do once the lid is on.  Tuesday was spent splitting firewood and prep work for today.

Glued the deck on today with a bit of help from Mrs Nuts. Not easy to position the sheets  by yourself.

This is the foredeck primed with epoxy resin on the contact surfaces.  The stringers and frames are also primed with epoxy resin and then covered with epoxy glue mix before screwing it all down.

After gluing down the deck I put epoxy fillets on all the frames and deck stringers on the inside for additional strength and to make it look a bit better.  Got to give it a finish sand and paint once cured.

Was cold today but had the inside of Nuts over 20c and humidity just over 60%. I just love my Chinese diesel heater (Vevor) . I had an Eberspecher diesel heater on our canal cruiser which was also super. I have been using rubbish fuel - old engine oil and tractor hydraulic oil.  It burns clean and hot in a 50% mix with diesel.  It does put a deposit in the burn chamber but if you open it up and give it a clean out every now and then there seems to be no problem.  Epoxy went off just fine and even with using slow hardener had to work quickly.  It was nice and hard this evening so could remove the screws and only broke off 2.

Tomorrow (Thursday) planning to glue the cockpit seats and floor down.  

 3rd March

So what has happened in the last days - Went fishing and got my fill of Omega 3.  Nice day on the sea.  Got back inside Nuts with a pile of sandpaper and wore out my fingers giving the whole interior a rub down with 240 grit to prep for the final coat of paint.  Forepeak, starboard half of boat and half of port side has had its final coat of PU topcoat as well as underside of deck.

Just got to do one more painting session  on the port side (galley and main bulkhead) then done.  I will leave the final coat on the floor till last after deck is fixed down.

Going through a cold spell at the moment (nice low humidity though) so took my cheapo diesel heater to bits to give it a service as been burning a lot of rubbish fuel.  It was a bit nasty inside but cleaned up nicely and working like a champion still.

Thanks to a friend down the hill from us I got a pickup full of logs and spent the afternoon with the chainsaw and got the log splitter ready for action tomorrow.  Will try to get the last of the painting (for now) done tomorrow.  Then I can glue the deck down.

Got some goodies on the way from Amazon.  Will keep you informed.