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".

 21st April

Spring has arrived with nice weather here in the Azores.

Been working on the companionway.

After lots of fiddling I am finally happy with the setup.  All teak edges routed half round and all screws countersunk for later plugs.  

All the bits got removed and washboards epoxy coated both sides with a window opening cut in the top washboard.  All edges also soaked in epoxy.  Will let it cure and give it a good sand and start the gluing and painting process.  Only got 1m2 of peel ply left from a 100m2 roll.  Good thing all the epoxy work is finished.

 19 th April

Spring has arrived so garden going crazy.  Spent many hours trying to control the mess!

Did cut some teak and start the companionway structure.  All just screwed together to see if it will work out before epoxying.

I have a piece of 10mm acrylic that I can use for a washboard but it is heavy and does not float.  Also have some 5mm polycarbonate that I can put in a ply washboard as a window to check what is happening in the cockpit when all closed up. I think I will go with the second option as much lighter and will float.  (washboards have to be teathered to the boat in the regulations for the race)

I plan to make a folding doger for cockpit protection once all deck layout is done.  Going to ask my buddy Jeff in Cape Town to help on the design.  He is a wizz at that.

 18 th April

Been busy with other things the last 2 days but managed a bit on Nuts.

Went through my teak and prepared some for laminating for the tiller.  Gave it a fine run through the thicknesser to clean the 25 year old spider shit off and gave it a good wipe down with acetone before laminating.

Cleaned it up this morning and gave it a rough cut out on the bandsaw then finished it off with hand plane and router and gave it a sand.  Drilled and fitted the stainless steel mounting straps to check the width on the rudder.  All good.  I will only drill the hole through the rudder once it is trial fitted after my pintle welding problem is resolved.  Going to over drill all the through holes in the rudder and epoxy fill and redrill to make a good seal for no water ingress into the plywood core.  Afternoon spent in Horta and marina so not much done on Nuts.  Going to tackle the companionway washboards next.

 16 th April

No news today.  Huge rain. Tar getting washed out the road down the hill from our house.  Snoozed in bed till late then swam up to the workshop and fiddled.  Nuts all leveled on new mobile cradle.  Dug through my left over pile of wood looking for some treasure,  Burmese Teak off cuts and left over stock from teak decks I installed many years ago (25 years plus).  Looking for material to make tiller, companionway edges and maybe hand rails.  Hand rails might end up made from aluminum tube.  Off  to marina tomorrow to sort out my little fishing boat then back to Nuts. 

 15 th April

Weather been lousy over the weekend so took it off and relaxed.  Spent morning sorting boat stuff in the marina. (my fishing  boat cover got damaged in the gales) and the afternoon making a mobile cradle for Nuts.

Now just got to level off the boat to enable the marking of the waterline etc.   It is easy to move and will make life easier to spray the sides.  Just wheel it out the workshop and turn it around and back in to do the starboard side.  Welder issue getting sorted so can continue soon on the pintles and make a trimtab.

 12 th April

Not a good day.

Started off with wet grass so couldnt do the garden work planned so finished rudder pintle jig instead.

Got welding and welded tubes to pintle sides.

First welds went fine then welder displayed E1 and shut down!!  I hate these electronic welding machines.  Had this same problem a few years ago and had to send the welder back to Germany for repair.  Was still under warranty but now expired.  I still have to weld the cuts I made for the bends before I can passivate the stainless, grind, sand and polish.  Grrr.  Took my frustration out with my bush-wacker in the garden!!

 11 th April

Cut the bunk foam into shape ready for covering.  Just got to wait for the covering material to arrive.

Started making the welding jig for the rudder pintles.

Weather very good here at the moment and was thinking about going fishing tomorrow but got lots to do in the garden.  Hope to finish the jig though.

 10 th April

Managed my planned agenda for today.

Starboard side sanded and 2 coats of primer. There are still some parts of the deck and cockpit waiting for a quick sand and second coat of primer.  Rudder also got its second coat.

Foam for bunks arrived today so started with templates this evening.  Got to work out how many meters of fabric to buy for the covers.  

Going to buy the PU paint for the hull soon and start preparing for spraying.  Big mission as have to dedust my workshop and build a tent over the boat. I will probably paint the deck and cockpit by hand as a lot of the surface  will be covered in nonslip so finish is not so important.

 9 h April

Spent time before lunch leveling the hull and giving the port side a sand to knock off the filler touchups then a quick go over the whole side with 180 grit to smooth out the sanding marks from 60 grit.

Got 2 coats of primer on and looks nice and fair.  Also got the rudder primed on both sides.  Now just got to repeat tomorrow on the starboard side.  

 8th April

No photos tonight.  Did watch the eclipse - was spectacular using 2 pairs of polarised sunglasses  tilted at an angle to get a good shade.

Stbd side sanded with nice sharp new sandpaper and all small blemishes refilled.  Finished sanding the rudder and now ready for priming. 

Tomorrow will tack over again to sand the touch up filler on the port side and slap a coat of epoxy primer on if all is OK.

 7th April

Tacked onto starboard for sanding the stbd topsides.  Sanded maybe 1 third but ran out of sandpaper.  No point wearing my arms out with blunt sandpaper so stopped sanding and started playing with my lathe.

Preparing some POM (Delrin) for making fittings for Dyneema connection to the mast for when I experiment with synthetic rigging.  Also got to make bearings for wind vane experiments.

Lathe work done and now got to cut in half at the correct angle and remove the end where it was mounted in the lathe then drill through for the mounting bolt.  

Going shopping tomorrow then back to sanding.

 6th April

Been a busy day.

First thing I did was skim the other side of the rudder and lifted and heeled over the hull a bit. 

Hull side at a comfortable height while sitting in a chair on a board with wheels.  Got stuck in with the sander and long board.  I dont know who designed my Elu sanding machine but it gets heavier as the seconds tick by.  Lots of rest breaks later and just before a late dinner the whole side was done.

After dinner did the touch up filling on the sanded port side which will be sanded flat in a few days when nicely cured.

Tomorrow will flip the hull to put the starboard side up and start sanding stbd side.  Need to buy more sandpaper on Monday so wont get too far.

Also did some power consumption tests on the electronics to be fitted.  Going to try to estimate the AH consumption in 24 hours and estimate what 50w of solar will produce on average per day to see what I can use.

 5th April

Finished glassing the rudder leading and trailing edges yesterday and gave the whole rudder a sand today.

Gave the deck a good clean and de-dust and then gave it a coat of epoxy primer.

Cockpit and transom also have first coat.

Rudder got a light skim of micro balloon filler this evening and can get the other side done tomorrow.  Will sand and prime in a few days.  Looking fwd to doing stainless steel work again soon to finish the pintles.

Almost time to lift the hull a bit and tip it on its side a few degrees to make it easy to sand the topsides

 3rd April

Just got in from workshop (4th April ie after midnight).  Was determined to finish all the sanding on the deck and cockpit.  All done and ready for primer.  Also glassed the other side of the rudder today.  No pictures as will look the same as yesterday - just flipped over.  Also spent some time spending money with Ali and Amazon buying goodies.  I gave up smoking a year ago and have a new addiction - as long as it costs less than cigarettes no problem! and more healthy.

 2nd April

Took the Easter weekend off and had a great barbecue with lots of friends at the beach on Sunday.

Did a bit of fiddling with electrics but got stuck in today and shaped the rudder and epoxy glassed one side.  I have made a section of straight edge on the trailing edge to fit a trim tab to experiment with.

Once the other side is glassed and everything is filled and faired I can finish welding the rudder pintles.  I need the exact thickness to get a good fit.  There are different layers of glass on the sides of the rudder at the bottom pintle versus the top so the bottom pintle will be a bit wider than the top.  Also made a short 75mm dia. epoxy glass tube to fit in the deck for the dorado box.

Been looking for jobs to do that dont involve sanding but running out of ideas so will just have to get it done!