Masts and scarf joints

I have been getting the scarfs ready for gluing on the other mast I have to make while
I try and find the funds for the glue. That one is now ready so I will cut the scarfs on
Teals mast next.
Teals mast is about 34ft to the keel and the other one is 30ft deck stepped, both are
solid and being made up of 5 pieces each and are 5 inch diameter.
Teals is ex 1x20ft 1x16ft with 1 scarf and the opposite side is ex 1x20ft 1x18ft, the 20ft
is split with half being scarfed on to either end of the 18ft, this gives me a minimum of 9ft ]=
between scarfs on either side of the masts.
The scarfs are 10:1 so over the width of the mast a scarf would measure 4ft if they were
aligned (they are not)
These are the largest scarf joints that I've made so I was dreading it a bit, They were in fact
quite easy. The skill saw just about cuts through from either side and then I cleaned them up
with the electric planer which got them very near perfect and then finished them off with the
smoothing plane and a straight edge ready for glue.
The glue I've been told to use is Aerodux which cures as low as 10 degrees, this is now
known as Prefere 40/50 so thats what I'm going for. Its not that expensive I'm just very broke.

Day 2 Baltimore wooden boat festival

Well I've had a great weekend, finished off by a few pints of Guinness in Jacobs bar
to top it off.
A big thanks to Brendan for the sailing on Ann Again on Saturday and to Leo for having
my friend Grainne and I out on Sile a do today, she is a beautiful boat.
Its all great inspiration to keep up the work on Teal and get her out sailing.

An Suire getting under way http://ilur.tumblr.com/

Phils folkboat, A good buy for someone, lots of work been done and shes for sale

Brendans "Ann Again" 1937 McGruers auxiliary sloop  

Day 1 Baltimore wooden boat festival

The Lobster boats rafted up

Cornish lugger "Peel Castle" 

Lobster boat "Fionn"

Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter "Edith Gray"

Edith Gray & Jeremy Iron's "Willing Lass"

Leo's Ketch "Sile a do"

Willing Lass is a blue moon yawl, Apparently they a loosely based on falmouth quay punts but the rig is very similar to Teals except Teal has a pole mast and a bermudan mizen

Galway hooker "An Faoilean"

Worlds apart by design but looks like they had some close racing.

Shannon Hooker "Sally O Keefe" 

Mass exodus.

I just caulked a few starboard seams today, I just stopped short of the missing ribs aft as

I still didn't get hold of any, I priced some American white oak this morning and it was 

extortionate so I need a new plan. 

The yard was a hive of activity today with everyone preparing to head down river 

on this evenings tide for the festival tomorrow. I'm crewing on Ann Again tomorrow and

Sunday so I will try and get some pics of the goings on. I'm looking forward to some 

relaxation.

This arrived as I was leaving, I assume shes here for the festival, Looks brand new and the craftsmanship looks  impeccable. A quick google of her and it turns out she was project  built in 2012 in Co. Clare and is a Shannon Hooker, the first one to sail in over a century.  So she fits in well with the Currach and Galway hooker to her right.

Various bits and pieces

I've been a bit held up this week due to some mechanical issues on my charter boat
but never the less we got a bit done.
Ken was free on Saturday so we riveted to remaining ribs on the starboard side, We
are short 4 ribs so I'm going to try and find some american white oak tomorrow for
that, I'm also short about 200 rivets, I don't know if I lost a box of them or whether I
ever had them so they need to be got asap also. I need the rest of the ribs in before I
can caulk the starboard rear quarter.
Today I fared of the planks above the garboards and caulked the port garboard and
up the stem. I also put in around a 100 silicone bronze screws where they were needed.
When we fitted the new sawn frames, some were just fitted with 1 screw per plank in
case the plank had to be changed, Thats pretty much it for screw fastenings now thank
God. Friday we will hopefully be back steaming ribs.

Baltimore wooden boat festival is on this weekend, I had hoped Teal would be ready for
it when I wrote a post this time last year, We're not quite there yet but we're a hell of a lot
closer. She has come a long way over the last 12 months.
If anyone is looking for something to do over the weekend Baltimore promises to be a good
one and its also the West Cork food festival so lots of delicious food and drinks to be had.
Teal won't be there but I certainly will :)

http://www.baltimorewoodenboatfestival.com/

Port side Caulked

All the port side is now caulked with the exception of the garboard, I just need to fair the
plank above it before I caulk it.
I then painted all the seams ready for putty. I need to get Ken to rivet up the the other side
with me before I can continue caulking.

A start on the mast

We set today aside to make a start on the mast. We also went through the running and
standing rigging and sussed out what was what and what we need to replace. It seems
that we are only missing the jib and foresail halyards and the bobstay needs replacing.
The rest is serviceable.
We split the wider planks of Douglas fir and ran it all through the surfacer so its now
ready for me to go ahead with the scarf joints. I also need to set up stands the full
length of the mast for working on.
As well as Teals mast I'm also building a 30ft mast and a 17ft boom for someone
else at the same time so thats why there is so much timber.

This is a good sign

I'm getting the hang of it now. 8 seams caulked. I need to find or try and make a thinner
hardening up iron for the narrow seams, The one I have will only fit in the widest seams.

Caulking

I finally made a start on caulking today, Only managed to do two seams but I'll be getting better
at it and I know where to find the caulking irons now. Its hard on the hands when your not used to it.
I'll prepare some of my cotton at home before I go at it again so at least I won't have to go
messing with that while I'm there.
I got a 5 minute tutorial from Phil before I started and Liam and Leo gave me some tips later so I'll
hopefully know what I'm doing soon.
Anyway I'm happy with what I did and I didn't burst the inside of any planks or anything so, so far
so good.
When I have to open tight seams for caulking there is parafin squeezing out of the planks which I'm
glad to see. Nice to know it is indeed soaking in and not just money evaporating into thin air.

These are the plank edges I added either side to make up for the open seams

Engine

I just put a deposit down on a 12hp Petter mini twin for Teal. It needs some work but
looks a nice tidy engine and is nice and compact. It also means that we can go ahead
and plan our engine beds and cockpit now that we have dimensions. I won't be picking
it up for a while though.
Tomorrow I'm planning on starting caulking some of the tighter seems on the port side.

Preparing for caulking

Teal is getting regular soakings with parafin and boiled oil. We are waiting for her to take up
so we're getting all the other bits and pieces ready in the mean time.
We spent all of Wednesday riveting and have nearly finished the Port side. We'll get on
with the starboard side the next day Ken is free.
Today I took the fastenings out of the forward 4ft of two of the planks below the water line
on the starboard bow where the seams were two big to caulk, the worst on the whole boat.
I planed down the top edge of the lower one for re-edging and wedged them apart to close
the seams either side, then refastened them and glued on a 4ft pitch pine wedge to fill the gap.
Now the seams are nice and tight. Next I will have to do the same on the other side.
I forgot the camera so will catch up with pics the next day.

Kevin O Farrell was in to take some pics the other day while we were riveting. Have a look at
his facebook page. Loads of great pics from Hegartys yard.
http://www.facebook.com/KevinOFarrellPhotographer?fref=ts