A drink on Teal

I headed down today to finish the plank I started the other day and was greeted
by a package addressed to Teal. To my surprise it was a bottle of whiskey and
a card from Andy Rankin who sailed Teal to the Baltic a few years back and
had just recently come across this blog and felt we deserved a drink for our efforts.
I would like to say a big thank you to him for a very kind gesture which is very
much appreciated.
We will certainly make good use of it, we have at least on one occasion over
indulged in a bottle or two of whiskey to the entertainment of our other halves.
I will spare a drop for Teal and there is an open invitation to come and teach us
how to sail her. Cheers

On another note, I steamed in that plank and removed another old short larch
plank and a piece of the adjoining pitch pine one, mainly to extent it a bit and
eliminate a large knot with a split running around it. The starboard side is starting
to look much better.
I also got a new camera for Christmas so I took a few random pics.

We're still here 'better continue'

So the mayans must have just got fed up making there calender then, Not
that I'd buy in to these things but I did have a glance around the boatyard
when I got there to find the best apocalypse shelter near by to Teal and
came to the conclusion Nicks steel yacht was my best bet if s**t hit the fan.
Then I got back to business.
I had fastened two planks in place a few days ago and held one in temporarily,
when I looked at it this morning and clamped it up tighter I realised there was
no need to take it out again so I fastened it in as well.
I then tacked on my batten and set out, cut, planed and backed out the longer
plank above it. I've left it in place now under strain so by the next day it will
have taken the shape a little before I make final adjustments and steam it.
So far so good, I'm beginning to enjoy the planking process although it does
take quite a bit of time.
I've been told a few times that planking a whole side is much easier that doing
repair planking and I can see why. Making a plank fit between two others
tightly is pretty tough.

Anyway thats that until after Christmas, I hope to get that plank in and maybe
one more before the year is out and start the new year fairly on target.

Merry Christmas everyone, have a good one.

Steaming/planking

Well I spent two days at the boat this week, Wednesday Ken came with me
and he made a start at removing the deck, so far the deck beams etc look
good but theres still a lot left to uncover.
I cut out two shutter planks, I just clamped them and copied them as the originals
were in one piece and spent a good while getting the plank I spiled backed out
and fitting nicely.
Today I continued with one of the shutter planks, I used the grinder with a flapdisk
to do the backing out as Iroko is pretty crap stuff to use a hand plane on. I
spent a good long while on that plank but I think it will do the trick.
I also made up the steam box and had a go a steaming the spiled plank, I steamed
it for an hour and a half and it seemed to twist in to place relatively easily. I'll
have to take it out again to make adjustments but I wanted to try out the steamer.
Apparently 212 degrees is the magic temperature for the steam box although I just
guessed, it was bloody hot inside it though.
I need to go down for a few hours to plug the old fastening holes in the frames and
prime them before I permanently fasten the planks on.

I could have done with holding on to the money for Christmas but I forked out for the gas to make life easier

This is the one I steamed, you can see how much it flexed compared to the pic  in the last post when it was dry

Smoker/steamer

I tried out the smoker today to see if it will work as a steamer and it went
quite well. I picked up two lengths of 9x1 and two lengths of 4x1 to make
a steam cabinet. They are around 14 ft long at the moment, I don't know if
that would be too long for the steam to work or not but it should hold any
plank I need to steam, if needs be I'll cut it shorter and let the planks hang out
the end. I'm going to place one end of the cabinet straight on top of the smoker
to eliminate the metal pipe. The pipe length cools the smoke when I'm using it
as a smoker but thats obviously not necessary for this. I don't know whether I'll
use the gas or a fire yet, I guess a fire until I can afford a tank of gas.

Started planking

I had a good long day to myself today, so I started by calling into a local joinery
where the owner has a long running interest in boats and picked up three 4.500mtr
lengths of 12 x 1 iroko to use for planking. Pitch pine would just be too much time
and hassle to source and I just want to keep things moving along, Iroko is widely
used in modern wooden boat building anyway although it is an expensive material.
Anyway I then set up bit of a working area in the tent and went about chiseling
out around the heads of the fore and aft keel bolts so that the rectangle washers can
sit flat on top of the deadwood and bow knee, I had been meaning to do that with
weeks, I still need to find a socket and tighten them up, I could probably torque up
the others again as well, as she has settled onto the ballast more now. You can see
the felt being extruded from under the keel as she settles.
I finally pressed ahead with the first plank. Its my first time planking and I had spent
plenty of time reading and studying spiling but as per usual I was quickly shown a
simpler Hegarty's method.
I have the first plank cut out and it seems to be fitting in but it will require steaming
before it will twist into place, I also need to do the backing out to let it sit properly
on the frames but for now at least I have broken the ice and made a start.

It has a lot of twisting left to do

I was just thinking about how to steam my planking and had an idea. The picture below is a

cold smoker I made for smoking fish, bacon etc, It has the fire in the base and over it is, as near

as makes no difference a boiler, I usually fill the top with oak shavings but I guess it would be 

equally as good for making steam, Just need to stick a steam box/pipe on the outlet instead, I 

have also recently started putting the blowtorch in the door and turning it down low so I can run it

on gas instead of solid fuel which means I can leave it work for hours on end. 

Will have to try it out.                   

Teals indoors

My tarp arrived yesterday so I managed to get away today and get it all
covered over while the weather is calm. No excuses now, have to get planking !