The foredeck beam now fitted, Now making the breasthook & quarter knees to fit in the Picnic boat

The foredeck beam is now fitted and also the support under the fuel tank base to which the bulkhead will be screwed once it is made

The first of the knees being cut out roughly to shape so that it can be put through the planer / thicknesser to get to its finished size

The second knee get the same treatment on the bandsaw before being put through the planer / thicknesser 

Finally the breasthook  

All cut and ready to be thinned down to the correct size

The stern of the boat where the quarter knees will be fitted when fitted to the gunwales and the aft trim of the boat 

 

Today it was the last few hours working on the Papendick Family's James Silver "Chance" & back to doing the Picnic Boat again

 Today saw the end of scraping the cupboard doors,locker doors and cabin doors I have presently in my workshop down in Essex. So far just one cabin door is going to need renewing as there are areas of rotten wood in the lower half of the door and it will better to source a good supply of the Mahogany that is as close as it possible to the original wood. 

The next job on the doors will be to sand back the surface to original colour and then put a thin coat of varnish on the surfaces to seal the colour of the wood until it is time to varnish the doors ready to refit the door furniture and re-hang the doors in the boat. 

That job is now put to one side has I get on with the picnic boat and fitting the fuel tank in the bow and also making the foredeck beam fit into the top of the gunwales  and make the new breasthook and then make up the patterns for the quarter knees. Also I will have to make up a aft deck beam like the foredeck beam to lay the new plywood aft deck  which in turn will be covered in a thin layer of teak planking. The teak is recycled so no new wood is being used to make the teak covering of the fore and aft decks  

So tomorrow it will a matter of getting out the oak after I have finished making the knee patterns and then cutting and planning the oak ready to start fitting the knees into position.  Then get some thin strips of mahogany to bend over my deck beam jig and glue them up to make the aft deck beam while working on the rest of the boat refit. 

Continuing the fuel tank installation and now just need to fix the base down and fibreglass into position

Setting up at the right height 

Make a plywood pattern to the correct shape and size to make the fuel tank base

Cut the plywood base roughly to size 

The cut out the hole for the fuel tap and sump drain in the plywood base 

Just a bit of trimming and the base can be fixed and fibreglassed into position 

 

Starting to fit fuel tank in bow

Set out the position for the fuel tank with a couple temporary beams to work out height and how far forward the tank can be positioned in the bow 

Just setting up a spline to check the deck camber to see how much of a camber the deck beams need to have in them

The position to the will be finalized once the tank beams are fitted along with the plywood shelf is fitted and glassed in position. 

 

It is almost 2 weeks on from the operation and feeling better every day

 This coming Monday it will be 2 weeks since I had my emergency surgery. Everyday I am feeling better in myself although having to come to terms with restrictions on how much I can do on a day to day basis. So I am trying to employ some short term staff to get the ball rolling again so I can get the cashflow running again. Like any business cash flow is king, no cashflow no business.

So on Monday morning it is back to the new normal for me, Get other people to do the heavy work while I sort the lighter duties around the yard and workshop. Doing some light bench work which does not involve any heavy lifting, This way I will be able to keep myself motivated and on the ball.

Some friends are helping at the moment to get things sorted as best as possible, however, I do need some experienced boat builders to get through the backlog of work in the yard and workshop so that I can see a clear way through and start to get my business back on its feet.