Tent

Tent would be probably be an understatement but last thing we want is something
that blows away everytime theres a puff of wind, this should last, and I'm sure once
Teal is complete it will find another purpose pretty quickly.
We now need to get hold of something to cover it so I should get on that.

Also here are some of the pics Nick took when we were drilling for the last two keel
bolts, Cheers Nick

The next time we get an un-obscured view of Teal she should look like new and be ready for rigging

Not for the overly health and safety conscious 

A nice sheen on the hull from the freezing shower of hail

New arrival

Well last week turned out to be pretty hectic, Wednesday saw the arrival of
our little baby girl and Thursday morning Providence headed off round the
Mizen and up the South West Coast to her new home port.
Thankfully Liam helped with the latter and left me free for more important duties.
Anyway all is well and once everything settles back down and I get some free
time again I will press on with work on Teal.
I hope to finish the tent asap so at least she will be covered over and then do
a few bits and pieces at home, such as the rudder and skylight.
I also need to clean up the garboards and take them back to the boatyard and
start saving up to buy timber for planking.
All in good time I guess.

Re-antifouled and ready to launch

Rushing and waiting

Well with our new arrival expected any day now and a sale agreed on Providence
I was rushing about trying to get her ready for relaunching and all my bits and
pieces cleared out and brought home in case I'd have to rush off.
Well as it turns out I had plenty of time and now we are just waiting.
I did go to the boat yard today and made a start on the tent to cover Teal but the
weather is horrible so I didn't stay too long.
I picked up all the timber for the tent at the sawmill last Wednesday. I just got green
(unseasoned) white deal as it was half the price of seasoned timber and it was irrelevant
whether it was seasoned or not.
I still need to put up the rafters and batten it all ready for covering with something.
The cover is the next problem.

Planking out

I went down today and striped off all the planking that has to be changed. There
was a butt joint behind one of the shores that were holding her up that I didn't
know about so I will probably have to change that one as well as it is very short
and I want to stagger out the joints. The planks look to be fairly straight so
hopefully I won't have to buy really wide stock to get them out of.
I've just been drilling the heads off the rivets and punching them in to free up
the planks, most of the bronze nails have already been cut off when the frames
were replaced and any that remain just pull out without any hassle.
One thing to note is that it helps to have the right size drill bit for drilling the rivet
heads off, too small and its hard to get it dead center, too big and they run off and
damage the surrounding plank, not important when we're changing the plank but if
I was just replacing the rivet it wouldn't be ideal.

Providence has just been lifted out as well so I need to get it washed down and cleaned out for the Winter

Drilling for keelbolts

So as planned Liam lifted Teal for us this morning so we could drill for the
fore and aft most keel bolts. This was done in typical Hegarty's (terrifying)
fashion, but as ever it worked well.
Typically as soon as the boat came off the ground we had squalls of wind
and hail which made things that much more of an effort. In the end we had
the bolts in in around 30 minutes and then set the boat up close to her
waterline.
A quick cup of coffee and we went about making up the outrigger style legs
which will support the hull during planking and be a base on which to build
the tent over her for the Winter.
The tent is next on the to do list.
Nick got some pictures of the work in progress this morning which should be
better quality than mine so I will post some up whenever I get them off him.

Making holes

I spent the last few days at the boat but have just been picking at it
really and trying to get my head around the next big step which is the
planking.
I marked the planks that need changing and raked out the seams
and removed one of the stealers yesterday.
Today I cleared all the fastenings on those planks and started drilling out
rivets, I took out another stealer and a short section of planking but the
wind and rain got the better of me and I gave up for the day.
I've made a rough list of the planking thats needed and it appears to be
11 lengths. Only two of which are the full length, the planks above the garboards.
The rest are stealers and shorter pieces between 2 and 3 meters long.
The planking is 25mm, "1 inch" thick.
We're planning on lifting the boat on Saturday and fitting the last keelbolts.
I found a bit big enough to do the trick in the Ilen shed, so that will save us
having buying one.