Screen Test

Finally, after much too-ing and fro-ing. The new moulded screens arrived and Sunday looked fine and warm enough to attempt to fit one. In the end, both were cut to size and dry fitted in one day leaving just the four side panels to fit.

In a week or so after they've settled in, it'll all come apart again for final painting and then they'll get bonded in with the glop stuff.

Still got some refurbishment work to do on the kent rotary screen. the fairing needs painting and the motor casing needs re-chroming.

But, progress indeed - a millstone into a milestone.

(Now Playing - World outside your Window, by Tanita Tikaram)

Hit the Deck!

Finally - it seems like years - I've finished the bottom of the boat. All fastenings changed; screw heads filled; painted; faired and painted again.

OK, so theres a few small areas to do where the jacks are. I can move them in a week or so when the primer has hardened, but they're small beer compared with working on a whole side.

Now to concentrate on the topsides while the British summer is here: The windscreen frame needs cleaning back to bare wood and requires some repair work before painting. Then its finishing the cabin sides, some filling still to do, then painting.

And then its the new Teak deck.

I've been umming and ahhing over using a fake teak for a couple of years. There are about a dozen or so variants from Flexi-teak to Aikona to loads of others. I decided to wait and see how others got on with the stuff. I didn't like the soft ones as they don't support deck fittings too well and crush easily when the sister-in-law turns up in stilettos. Then some of the guys started to report massive movement with the hard fake teaks due to temperature fluctuations.

All in all it looks like real teak will have to be the answer. So now to decide whether to go down the WEST Epoxy and 6mm thick planks or a more traditional layup with 10mm thick planks on a flexible adhesive.

Decisions decisions...

Some progress at last.

Finally got back working on the boat after too long decorating the Lounge. First job is to paint the starboard fuel tank bay. But there's an exhaust system in the way, so first-first job is to remove the exhaust system, remaining wires and fuel pipes.

Due to the torque tube steering system on the port side, the Aft Cabin Huntsman 31 has a single exhaust on the Starboard side, so somewhere there needs to be something to join the two engine exhausts into one pipe: Here is the beast. Removing it, is one of the few two man jobs so far encountered. Well, one man with screwdriver and one wife to hold the spanner on the nut buried inside a bit of wood.

Made of brass or bronze or copper (still haven't found out) and brazed together. Mine was plastic coated (till I took it all the plastic off) it also appears to be zinc painted or something. Perhaps AVB can remember what they were constructed of.

The plastic on one input pipe was badly melted which would suggest that an engine had been run for a while without the sea-water cooling sea-cock turned on. Which all goes to show that boat restoration is equal parts engineering; woodwork; boatbuilding and archeology. With some gynaecology thrown in - you try getting the plastic coating off the inside of a 4 inch pipe!

(Now playing: Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells)