Mai-Star II refit coming along nicely and a number of jobs getting finished off and others made a start on.

The aft end floorboard being given its first fresh coat of deck paint and the step its first coat of undercoat.

The forward floorboard getting its second coat of deck paint. 

The gaps in the planking is down to a warm period of weather and the fact the hull is built out of larch and will take up once its back in the water when the refit is finished.

The cooker area getting a fresh coat of undercoat before the whole area is lined out before the cooker is refitted.

The aft end of the cabin getting a fresh coat of paint before all the masking tape is removed and the hardwood is rubbed down and the hardwood is varnished as well as the other hardwood trims.

The back of the chain locker bulkhead getting its second coat of bilge paint, just a couple more coats before it is refitted.

The cockpit getting it's first coat of white gloss, just a couple more and the bilge paint edge can be finished off and the refit of the cockpit can begin.

Back to work and onwards with Mai-Star II's refit.

The inside of the cabin now looking a lot brighter with a fresh coat of white gloss  

As are the cabin hull sides which are looking better

Looking good on both sides, just got to get the hardwood battens varnished to finish it off.

The back of the chain locker bulkhead getting its first coat of bilge paint.

The front part of the cabin sole getting its first coat of sand coloured deck paint, just two more coats to go to finish this job off.

The bunk fronts now finished off with its last coat of white gloss for this season.

So now that I am back on the boat and with renewed drive to get the boat finished off.

Special project boat underway again.

Hulls now been primed and made ready for filling and fairing surface of floats. A job for the apprentice next week.

Epoxying some of the panels for the project boat before building them up.

First morning back at work.

First morning back at work, it feels good to be back in the workshop. Getting on my project boat for a client and doing other small jobs round the workshop ready for clean start next week on a number of clients boats that have been on hold while was recovering from my accident a couple of weeks ago.  It is good to have understanding clients who are willing to wait while I get back on my feet.

The main job is to get the project boat finished off and then get Mai-Star II finished off so it can get back afloat and the hull can get a chance to take up and the hull can get watertight, then get on with the rest of the refit.

First day without the add of any sticks, bloody painful, but working through it

First day without the add of any sticks, bloody painful, but working through it will make my leg muscles stronger as long as I take it slowly, a bit at a time.
You can not keep me down for long with a business to run you can not be out of commission for long. The mobile boatyard will be on the road again soon servicing our clients up and down the country.

Manic Tuesday turned into Hellenist Thrusday

It quite a change at J-Star Boats with the master boat builder laid up with a bad leg injury. One day all systems go and work getting done and jobs ticked off the to do list, then next all stop with seven days in hospital to  sort out his badly damaged calf muscles some of which are not repairable and will stop him from doing some jobs. He will be able to do other jobs but will have to learn different methods of doing them.

He may be unable to work at the moment, but you can not keep him down for long, he will bounce back and carry on as before with renewed fire and determination to get the jobs done.    

Busy tuesday at the workshop with lots of boat movements and other jobs.

Super Tuesday saw a number of jobs done and other boats started with cleaning some of the boats. Also a number of boat movements, some to other places to be worked on and others just moved around the workshop and  another being sanded down and painted with protective epoxy primer ready to get its paint system. The Enterprise has been moved out of the workshop into the open air to give the varnish a chance to harden off in the direct sun light before being brought back in the workshop to have its decks sanded down with wet and dry sandpaper before it gets its final coats of varnish. When it comes back in it will get the rest of the restoration work done.

The Mai-Star Class dinghy will be the next back in the workshop to get finished off ready to be launched and have its sailing trials done.

At the same time work will be continuing of the Classic yacht Mai-Star II with its  refit coming along well and much of the major work done. 

A busy week coming up down the boatyard as Mai-Star II gets closer to getting finished and back in the water.

Now that the jobs on the boat are coming along as a pace the jobs are getting ticked off the refit list at a speed. however, The team has to take onboard that speed is not everything. Every so often you need to draw breath and take a minute to make sure you have not missed a small item that could trip you up later, if you have overlooked it along the way.

So at the beginning of this next week, it will be taking stock time and checking that there are no jobs that have been overlooked and double checking the jobs that have been done to ensure that nothing has been missed.

Then it will be full steam ahead to get on with the next jobs on the refit list and get the boat a few more steps closer to being launched and once again afloat where she should be.

One of the first jobs this week, will be checking that all the nails are in the new ribs and that there are no holes in the bottom that should not be there by design, Now there are a couple of bit of rib that need steaming into place around a sharp turn in the bilge where an old rib broken and is in need of replacing which as been left until now as did not have access to this part of the boat until now.

One of the team is getting on well with the painting out of the cabin and is making it look a whole lot better than it has for years. Once he has finished that he is going to turn his attention to the varnish work around the cabin and being that up to spec as well.

While he is doing that I will be getting on with repairing a spilt plank in the bottom and sorting out the caulking seams in the bottom and getting the bottom fairly watertight without over filling the seams so that when the boat goes back in the water it does not break the new ribs as the very dry planks swell up to their normal size.

Once these couple of jobs are done then we can turn attention to more of the jobs on the refit list  and get every closer to the water.

Busy few days on the Mai-Star II

Over the past few days, work has been coming along well with the hull seams from the waterline to deck level being refilled with linseed putty and the hull being painted with the first two coats of undercoat before a further two coats are applied over the freshly filled seams. Then a further two coats to applied before starting to do a spot of fine filling and fairing.

Also being done is the mast which has been stripped back to bare wood and sanded and re-varnished.

At last it is getting back more to its old self with a new coat of white paint

At the same time the cabin sides are getting a new fresh coat of varnish. 

At last the front two port holes are refitted and sealed in place.

So all in all it as been a busy week with the list of jobs getting shorter by the day.