Teal's 100th

I haven't made any progress over the last week or two really so I have little to show for it.
I've been putting coats of undercoat on the interior frame work and sanding varnish off the other spars
but the the weather at the moment is awful. There was a bit of a lull today so I went down to check the
boats were ok before it starts up again.

Percy Woodcocks book "Looking astern" contains a chapter about Teal (Little Pal) in which he writes
" I can't rightly remember if they laid Little Pals keel before or after the turn of the new year of 1914 ".
So within a week or two she will officially be one hundred years old.

The bottle of whiskey Andy Rankin sent me last year has not quite lasted to Teals launch but it has soothed my colds and flus from long days in the boatyard quite well over the year, Ken had his first, and the last glass of it the other night. Thanks again Andy.

So heres a few pics from today.

Just minor jobs and a bit of finishing on the interior and the restoration will be complete.

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year to all & thank you for following.

Sea-Boats, Oars and Sails

The Cornstore in Hegarty's houses the 1926 AK Ilen. The Ilen was designed by circumnavigator
Conor O Brien based on his own boat the Saoirse which he sailed around the world via the Great Capes in 1925. One of  only a handful of small boats to have completed that voyage at that time.
He wrote a number of books on sailing, one of which "Sea-boats, Oars and sails" has just been rereleased by lodestar books. The new edition contains new illustrations and photographs from local man
Tim Cooke's blog http://ilur.tumblr.com/ of his François Vivier-designed Ilur. 
There is more about it here on http://intheboatshed.net. Its certainly not expensive and I want a copy.

The Ilens story can be found at http://bigboatbuild.com/big-boat-build-auxiliary-ketch-ilen-beginnings.php
You can also get involved with the project in a series of workshops at Hegartys yard.
Unfortunately the Saoirse was lost in a hurricane while anchored off Jamaica in 1979, I'm sure she would
have been a much sought after vessel today.

Small cheap jobs

Can't go mad now in the run up to Christmas so I'm just doing what I can. Fitted the lazarette door,
fitted a lifting eye in the cockpit hatch and undercoated all the interior framing white.
I have run out of money on numerous occasions throughout this project but one benefit of that is that
I tend to spend all that extra time on little jobs that otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with.

Controls

Few more bits in place, Engine remotes, water alarm, bat and oil lights, the original compass and hit & miss vent. I need to make a new butterfly piece for the vent. Front bunk fully framed and primed, the interior is ready for all the various sheeting to go in, Probably can't afford it now before Christmas though.

Mast & Spars

Earlier in the year I took all the spars out of the big shed, washed them and put them in my workshop

for varnishing. That never happened and they got covered in dust again so today I took them back out, washed them again and set them up back in the big shed where I can at least get them ready for varnishing.

The mast is finished so I've hung it up out of the way for the winter, the few fittings it needs can be fitted 

where it is.

This is the reefing gear on the boom, I believe Teal was the first small boat to have this system which Percy Woodcock had made especially, The first one he received was made of brass but was not up to the job so they made him another in bronze. I can Only assume that this is it. Unfortunately I don't have the handle so I will have to make one.

Teals winches, I won't be using these, So if there are of use to someone make me an offer, To fit 125mm mast

Taken on the 15th of January 2013

God it doesn't take long to forget what we were looking at earlier in the year.

Interior

I bought some more red deal yesterday and got it all prepared.
I bolted the two timber floors to the forward frames and fitted the main part of the forepeak berth.
I also fitted the guides for the front of the engine box, the cross pieces on the main bunks and a
few pieces of the galley area.
I had the engine remote and wiring harness to fit but I didn't get round to it today.
I have been varnishing the lazerette door at home but when I put the final coat on the it reacted and
peeled off so I have to start again. The previous coat was drying for 24 hours but its just not warm enough
without heating in the shed. Its annoying, I keep thinking of little teak items I need but they all need 6 coats
of varnish before I take them to the boat so it takes a week to have a piece ready.

I don't know if I've ever said it on here but I am keeping Teal completely free of Plywood or any kind of
manufactured board. It would make a lot of things easier but it didn't exist when Teal was built so there
should be no reason to use it now,

Engine alignment

I fitted the new coupling today, The alignment was very close, I moved the engine sideways a fraction
but the height was perfect. I still need to drill the coupling and fit a dowel pin for security. I wired across the coupling for anodes later on.
I finished varnishing the hatch and took it back down and gave the bulkhead two coats of primer as well.

I removed the flexible coupling to check the shaft coupling against the gearbox.

I checked it with a feeler gauge. The gap on each side was perfect but there was a 30 thou discrepancy 

between the top and bottom.  I'm more than satisfied with that with a flexible joint so the whole job didn't 

take long.

The fuel tank has had all the fittings welded in and is bolted in place, It'll hold 30lts. That should run the little Petter for quite awhile and a 5 gallon drum will be like having a full spare tank of fuel.

I primed the back of the teak sheeting because I am going to sheet the inside with pine and paint it all satin white,
Most of the interior will be satin white and I'll trim it with varnished teak.

The list of jobs left to do is starting to get short now. A lot of them will take very little time but I just have to save up and buy bits and pieces. The hatch needs a deck light for instance.

Lovely

Shaft and prop

Yesterday I managed to get a few long outstanding jobs crossed off the list. I had a Castellated  nut
made for the shaft but I had no parallel key for it, so I bought a 316 stainless bolt and got to work with
a file and I'm very happy with the result, even if it did feel like being back in the metalwork room at school.
I greased the tube and stuck the prop on, now it just needs a split pin. I have just ordered a coupling
from http://www.asap-supplies.com so then I will just have to check the alinement and that will be that.
I heated up a tube of stikaflex in hot water to thin it out so I could pump it in around the tube, I could
have used some thinned putty with red/white lead but I'd have to find something to pump it in with.
Stikaflex will make sure it never leaks but it also means that tube will never come out again should it need
to.

Before fitting the tube I was told to drill two holes like this, One to fill and the other to release air.

Early start

Tim Cooke from http://ilur.tumblr.com put up this pic of a Youghal yawl today, The boat with the yellow gunnels in the background caught my attention. It should have, I spent most of my childhood in one. I'm not sure what make they were but they are very similar to the Fitzgerald marine 21 although the clinker simulation is different.
There was a fleet of them in Castletownsend as self drive hire boats, Thats where Dad bought his and
went on to use it for potting, netting and later running sightseeing and fishing trips from Glandore in it.
Thats how he started chartering and how I've now ended up doing the same.
I happy to say that his old one, the Carbery Miss is in lovely condition and still owned by the guy who
he sold it too about 18 years ago. They were good boats and they were out in some awful shit in it.


                                

Dad hauling pots

Seems I was into boats earlier than that, A wooden one too

Bulkhead

I was granted a long day in the boatyard today so before I went I chanced putting a coat of
varnish on the mast, the weather is nice and dry but cold so I won't know until tomorrow whether
it will stay gloss or not.
I made up the bulkhead for the fore cabin out of the remains of the deck material which there was
just about enough of, I had to put a few joints in some of them but they will all be hidden by the time
I'm finished. I used up the rest of the red deal I had on bits of the interior, I need to get some more
when I can. I'm actually really surprised how big the interior feels, I thought it would feel small with
the bulkhead in but its as if there is a whole other room instead. It might just be that the space is starting
to make sense. Either way I'm very pleased with it.
I was going to finish this evening by filling the seams in the cockpit floor. I had taped up the hatch ready
to go and opened the sealant only to find the whole tube which I bought this morning was rock solid.
I was planning on refitting the engine seacock and filling around the sterntube with sealant but I didn't
get round to it so I will do that the next day, I need to make and fit  a new limpet for the depth sounder as well while I have sealant open

I made the center boards up into a hatch, I'm going to get some flat brass to go around the edge to help keep water out, I made up the center strip as well.

My fore cabin. Ken may have a share in the boat but I'm claiming the forecabin, Right !

Theres a 1.9 meter berth either side, the galley area is the center of the photo. I am going to have some form of solid fuel heating at some stage. It will probably be a DIY bulkhead mounted stove. I know its a luxury but it will make it much more pleasant to stay on board in the Irish summer and the more Jess and the Kids enjoy it the more I'll get to stay on board. The work top area and chart table etc will be drop down items that shut up under the side deck and will double as cupboards.

The Cornstore which houses the AK Ilen
I was switching off the power a couldn't resist the picture although I didn't do it any justice.

This one looks much nicer on my computer, I don't know why blogger does weird things to dark photos.
It was nice because all the rooks were flying in

Moving inside

I have quite a lot to do once again. I've been trying to get bits and pieces that wouldn't cost anything
done before I went holiday but now that I'm back I was able to get some stuff that I needed and now
I have loads to do.
I finished the hatch and test fitted it today, I've brought it home again to varnish it, I made the
frame of the lazerette door and it just needs sheeting and gluing up. Washboard guides are fitted, just
need varnishing. The drive shaft is back with the end reduced to take a 1" coupling, shaft is 1 1/8 which
is a pain, also got a new prop nut made.
I made a fuel tank from an old keg which is the perfect size, I need to weld some fittings on to it and
get it in place before the interior is fitted permanently.
I got a 9x2 length of red deal yesterday and machined it all up to start the interior. I made up the side panels
for the bunks, they will be sheeted when its all done. It took a while to get them right but now there
is something there to orientate the rest of the interior so that should make it easier from here out.
Its hard to make a start in an empty odd shaped space.
I need to make the loose boards from the cockpit sole into a hatch as well.

Marking the door so that the sheeting in it lines up with the sheeting above and below

Time to fill the tardis

The frames are grooved and rebated for the sheeting to go in after

Its been a long time since I've made a dovetail in anything, quite pleased with myself 

This is an odd feature, hanging aft end of the bunk from the bridge deck , but it keeps the space around the back of the engine free and clear and keeps the timber out of the bilge.