Hardwood curtesy of freecycle

I had a reply last night to my freecycle request for hardwood. A very nice lady had an old door frame at the side of her garage that she said I could have.

It's 2 x (14cm x 6cm x 180cm) plus 1x (14cm x 6cm x 80cm). Should be enough there to keep me going :-)

Oooh a lovely piece of wood

One Sole board complete waiting to be varnished

I have two more cabin sole panels to frame and have started on the washboards, using the old ones as a template.

New washboards in progress

Old Washboard as a pattern

I took down the old headlining today and will get some thin ply to replace it next week.

I still can't find a hull number anywhere, I called the SSR people yesterday, Comme Ci Comme Ca was registered in 1995 but the didn't have the hull number.

With all this woodwork, it's starting to feel like I'm making progress.

Ciao for now

Bring on the summer

An exert from a Hurley 20 review by Alistair Buchan.

"For a small yacht, the Ian Anderson designed Hurley 20 is a wolf in sheeps clothing. Broad reaching in a force six with a rolled main and storm jib she made a creditable six knots so quietly an eight year old could (and did) take the helm, but swap the jib for a genoa and we travelled from surf to surf with the log swinging between eight and nine knots. Beating into a character building force seven gusting eight, her long boomed masthead rig covered four miles over the ground in less than an hour. Yet close reaching in a force four the helm was so well balanced it could be left for an hour at a time. It adds up to a fast,safe cruiser which can be sailed by the family and will not disgrace you round the cans."

I just want to get out and play 8D

Slow progress and water ingress

Hi,  It's been a while since I had anything much to say.  Progress has been painfully slow.  The rudder is now back on the boat although I still have to seat it in sikaflex and bolt it through with suitable fasteners. My neighbour has one half of the tiller attaching block which he is going to modify for me and I have managed to remove the broken bolts from from the other half.  I will use studs and nuts when it goes back together. Should make future disassembly somewhat easier.

It's also nice to have been able to fill in the hole in my lawn :~).  I have also made a start on the cabin sole boards.  I am using 9mm Mahongany marine ply. It's expensive but it does live in the worst part of the boat and I want it to last.  The originals are 9mm ply with strengthening around the edges.  I was going to use pine and encapsulate with epoxy but then I remembered I had an old Mahogany hand rail lying at the side of the house.  I arranged to borrow Dads table saw and got to work cutting it into useable strips. 

I was able to get two 20mm x 20mm strips out of the profile. The rail was about 4m long which would give me most of what I want but not quite.  I have now put a wanted ad on Freecycle for old hard wood bannisters, door or window frames... true recycling.. Dame Ellen would be chuffed.

I then routed a 10mm rebate into the strips to let the edge of the ply into.  This would give me enough wood proud of the ply to sand to a decent finish.

They were then mitred and PVA glued to the edge of the ply and held in place with a miriad of clamps. I was going to pin them as well but my panel pins wouldn't go into the mahogany without bending so I will have to buy some brass screws and screw them before coating with epoxy.

I have also been struggling to find the source of rain water ingress into the bilges.  I think I am going to have to remove most of the deck fittings and reseat on sikaflex... I wondering if it would be worth building a boat entirely out of sikaflex ? :~)  I am unable to replace the rotten floor support until I can keep the inside dry so this is a priority. Better get myself of to TR Fasteners for some gloop and new fasteners. 

Pintle repair

Lower pintle repair, fabricated in stainless, loosely fitted to rudder. I'm really happy with this. Needs to be set in Sikaflex, drilled and bolted through.
It's too cold a dark in the evening so I will fit this on Saturday.
I will pack the tube and stock bearings with Rocol Aqua 2 grease which apparently is suitable for submerged applications.
Other jobs for the weekend are to fit repair kit to my Henderson deck plate bilge pump and source some marine ply for the cockpit seats, washboards, cabin sole and floor support.

I feel drained

Aha... After all the taking apart, it's good to put something back on.
I stopped by the chandlers at Cobbs Quay today a picked up a long plastic skin fitting so that I could put a drain in the outboard well.. Or as I like to call it 'bucket'
I used my biggest hole boring bit (22mm) and wobbled my way through a sheet of Ali, 1/2" of ply, GRP, hard wood, a gap, more GRP and another sheet of Ali.
As my skin fitting was 1" diameter I then filed the hole until big enough.
I smeared silicon along the skin fitting thread and put a bead under the head before pushing into place. A bit more silicon behind the nut, tightened it all up a the jobs a good un.
I also got a call from concept sail today to say my genoa was finished. So I shall pick that up on Friday.
I also dropped the rudder off at the fabricators to have the lower pintle repaired.
It's all exciting stuff.... Well that's what I keep telling Julie:-)

Inspiration from the Dame.

I am not the fastest reader in the world so it was with some relief that, this morning, I finished my latest book.  I have been reading Ellen MacArthurs 'Full Circle'  on and off for the last five or six weeks.   The first part of the book deals with her round the world racing achievements before transitioning to a more environmental focus. All the way through the 'Ellen MacArthur Trust' is a constant passion for her. The book finishes strongly on the matters of sustainability and the 'Ellen MacArthur Foundation'.   I have to say, as much as I admire Ellens achievements I do find her writing a little hard work, but still worth the read. She appears to believe strongly in her work and, having finished the book and feeling inspired, I decided to look and see if there was anything I could do to improve my contribution sustainable living.    I already compost and recycle as much as possible, collect rainwater in water butts for watering plants, washing cars etc.  I recently started mulching the fallen leaves from the trees that border my garden and during the summer we had a log burner fitted to help reduce our fuel bills.  Our walls are cavity insulated and many of our lamps are energy saving.. we still have some work to do here.  

As for vehicles, well I am a petrol head but even here I have a tried to do the decent thing.. I refuse to have a Prius as apart from being dull they arn't all that when it comes to economy.  I have an Alfa Romeo Giulietta diesel which returns over 50mpg and is still fun to drive.  My other car, which my son drives, is a 46 year old Triumph Herald, which returns over 30mpg.  Not great but then again it only does short journeys and even better than recycling has got to be keep using... hasn't it?

Most of my sustainability decisions are based around outputs, what to do with the waste and reducing consumption but as Ellen argues, the answer lies not in doing less and less until we die of boredom as in the take, make and dispose linear model, but by doing more or different things in the circular model.   So instead of going out the front door to work on Ciao Bella I slipped out the back, put my wellies on and dug a vegetable plot.   Hopefully next year I will benefit from home grown spuds, onions, Garlic, peas, carrots, runner beans and what ever else I can coax to grow out back.  So instead of just using my compost to spread around the borders it will go towards next years groceries... waste goes to produce.  There is nothing new here, my Dad used to compost, grow veg and made or repair all kinds of things from what ever he could find, we've just stopped doing it and many people, including myself don't have the skills our parents had.

Ethically renewed, I did venture out to Ciao Bella. progress is slow at the moment. I drilled a drain hole through the outboard well as someone had put some plates on for the outboard clamps but hadn't left anywhere for the water to drain out. I need to put some kind of feed through pipe on though as it is not a solid piece of grp and the water now drains into the bilge :~(

 During the week, in line with sustainability , I did managed to pick up two second hand anchors, a 20kg danforth and a 10kg plough,  along with some chain , for the grand total of £30.

There I was, digging this hole

I have been trying to remove the tiller from the rudder stock for a few days now, but bimetal corrosion has been fighting against me. I need to get it off do that I can repair the lower pintle and assess if the tube needs replacing.

I eventually won the battle with plenty of brute force and ignorance.  The tiller is attached to the rudder stock by the above home made aliminium clamp bracket.  The six holes that you can see contained socket head stainless steel bolts with the head fitting fairly snugly below the face of the block.

Over the course of several evenings I tried allen keys, then an impact driver. I then drilled through the heads with a 5mm drill, it still wouldn't release. I finally drilled the heads off with a 10mm drill and guess what... it still wouldn't release.  I eventually had to get brutal with a Dagenham torque wrench and a wood chisel.  I was worried that I would be causing greater damage with this approach but couldn't think of any way around it.  After copious amounts of wd40 and about an hour of slogging at it it opened up enough to slide off.

The rudder and stock slipped through the hull only to stop short on my lawn.  I tried to tilt the trailer forward on the jockey wheel but there wasn't enough clearance under my storm porch, it's a tight fit on my garden I can tell you... You wouldn't want to run out of the house too quickly, you'd knock yourself out on the transom :D

In the end I held the rudder up out of the way on a rope and dug down about 8", it was enough to let the end of the stock drop clear of the tube and let me remove the rudder.Under the tiller was this tufnol block with a brass or bronze bearing inside it.  The screws had been knocked out of the GRP by my attempts to remove the tiller but there is no serious damage. There is also a similar set up at the bottom of the tube.

Under the collar was a sight to gladden the heart,  it looks like the original galvanised steel tube has been replaced with a plastic tube.  You can just see the end of if flush with the GRP.  I just need to go and see my fabricator and get something made up for the lower pintle, then it can go back together. 

New compass

I bought a compass on eBay the other day and as I stepped out of the house this morning I nearly tripped over it, the postie had left it on the doorstep.
I am well pleased with it... £30 inc p&p it is a Heath marine 'bosun' compass. It's in perfect condition, no bubbles or scratches and still with it's original box and packaging.

I'll have to see how I get on with this type of compass. The downsides apparently are that, unlike a bulkhead compass, you have to look down to check your course. The benefits seem to be that:

• The rotating grid can be set to a particular course.
• The whole unit sits on a bracket so can be stored in the cabin when not needed.
• If unhappy with the position it can be relocated without having to fill in a great big hole. In fact I will probably make a second bracket so that I will have a choice of positions depending on number of crew.. Sailing singlehanded makes you selfish so tend to position items with out thinking about being able to see / use them while the cockpit is crowded.

Sail cleaning

I dropped the Genoa off at Concept sails yesterday for them to put a new sacrificial UV strip on it.  It was a little more than I thought it would be at £116 but if that's what it is, that's what it is.  I was going to get the sails laundered at the same time but concept said that in their experience, rust stains tend not to come out and as my budget is taking a battering I decided to have a go myself.

Following some advice from the PBO forum I dragged my inflatable onto the decking, filled it with water, added a bit of Persil non bio and soaked the Main and Jib for 2 or 3 hours. The percieved wisdom was not to agitate them too much as I damages them.   They are now on the line drying so I will see how they look tomorrow.

First impressions

Sunday morning, she looks a bit sorry.

Having Ciao Bella home gave me my first opportunity to assess just what I have taken on, I am under no illusion that she doesn't require a great deal of work but it is only when you have time to clear out all the mess and really get to see the nitty gritty that you can fully appreciate what needs doing.

A first glimpse of Ciao Bella

Lack of care showing on her woodwork and fittings

Rudder pintle is broken and requires some investigation

Sails are all generally quite good and just require a good clean

Genoa requires new UV strip.

Seacocks... what Seacocks!!!

Today was spent sorting out what I have, what's good, what's not.  The Bilges were full of rain water which has been coming in through the broken Mushroom vent and the bolt holes for the pullpit which is not fitted on the starboard side. The storage under the Starboard quarter berth was also full of water which was coming in through the bolt holes for the missing Stantion. As a result most of the wood inside needs replacing or repairing.

The seacocks just arn't there.  The cockpit drains just go straight to skin fittings that's one of the first jobs to do. 

The Sails actually look pretty good.  The Genoa needs a new sacraficial strip, I have no idea how much this will cost but much cheaper than a new sail.. I hope :~)

I cleaned the worst of the muck of her decks and superstructure with a broom and watering can, there seemed to be lot of milky stuff coming off the paint work.  It looks a million time better already.

Roger, another local Hurley 20 owner, popped round to see her.  It's alway interseting to compare and discuss things with other owners. Roger has the mooring next to me so will be great to bring them both back up to scratch and have two Hurley 20's side by side on the water.

She's home!

This weekend was time for Ciao Bella to come home.  As Julies Astra is too light to tow the Hurley 20 I had to enlist the help of my Brother 'Dave' and his wonderful Sharon.  I had to take the trailer up to Bicester, where the previous owner help me drop the mast and  lift Ciao Bella off his trailer and drop it onto mine. 

Dave arrived about 10am and after making some final adjustments and strapping her down we were on our way. 

Hooked up and ready to go.

The farm was up a track with some of the worst pot holes that I have ever seen, Dave did a great job of negotiating these.  I followed in the astra keeping an eye on things, we stopped regularly to check the load but there was no need as it towed beautifully.

We made it home by 2:30pm.  The Boat and trailer weigh in at 1300Kg and at a steady 50 mph the Sharon returned 40mpg... Pretty darned good.



Annoying jobs

Today I have been mostly banging my head off a brick wall..  The wonderful Tohatsu 6HP engine that I bought recently has only run twice, that was with lots of ar*ing around trying to get it started.
I pulled it out of the garage last night, mounted it on a bit of wood and dangled the leg in a bin of water.
I changed the plug for a brand spanking new one and sprayed all the connectors with WD40.  Several pulls on the cord later and it was obvious that it wasn't going to go. I was hugely disappointed as I had assumed that it just needed a new plug.

After trawling the interwebby thing, and realising I didn't understand the information I was being presented with, I put a post on the PBO Forum and within minutes I was getting plenty of help.
The first suggestion was to test for an air gap spark.. I followed the instructions and made this super tool out of wood and nails.. all very industrial revolution looking :)  Well it proved there was little if anything coming down the HT lead.

The next checks centered around the CD Unit which looks like it could be over £150 to replace.  I needed to make a DVA (Direct Voltage Adaptor) for my multi meter to be able to read the peak voltage being generated.  This would have to wait until the morning...
So, This morning I scrabbled around the garage, house and loft looking for long forgotten pieces of electronics. During my searching I found my old Oscilloscope, this should be able to measure any signal being generated.

It seemed to prove that the CD unit is Beggared, and after a fruitless search online I have decided to let the professionals sort it out. My worry is that I will spend a lot on a replacement only to find that it wasn't that that was wrong or worse that it had been blown by something else in the system which will only do the same again.

My other job for today was to examine the trailer bearings.  I had quickly packed them with grease before taking Jelly Bean to Ipswich, I had noticed that there was some staining but as the Fantasie 19 is a relatively light boat so I wasn't too concerned.  Ciao Bella is much heavier so the bearings will have to be perfect. On top of that, my brother will be doing the towing so the trailer needs to be 100%

In short the bearings need replacing, I shall order them on Monday and fit them during the week. I also replaced the tyres as they were starting to perish... I seem to be spending quite a lot at the moment and Ciao Bella hasn't even arrived yet, how much will my wallet hemorrhage once she does ?!?!?
One thing that did make me laugh was this wee fella who'd been living in the barnacles and weed on the bottom of my tender :)

Nasa Duet

I have decided to buy a depth sounder to replace my fish finder. The fish finder, although having many benefits, does draw a lot of current and does not fit flush to the bulkhead.  I am going back to my original wish of a Nasa Clipper Duet. 

I missed one on eBay tonight which went for £128,  I spent another 1/2 hour looking for a good deal then came back to eBay.  I noticed a seller had a few of these for sale with a but it now of £165 plus £8.95 p&p. The list price is £208 so this looks like a good enough deal.  I then noticed it had amake an offer button. I've never tried this before so was sure how it worked... I put in £150 and it accepted it.. Well happy. All I can say is if you want one try the make an offer button and put in a lower offer... You never know :)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NASA-CLIPPER-DUET-/220521628169?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_BoatEquipment_Accessories_SM&hash=item33581d0209

A new boat, a new blog, a new name.

Hi and welcome to my blog. Those of you who followed my Jelly Bean Blog will be familiar with my low budget approach to keeping afloat.  I pride myself on having maximum smiles per pound, I'd been sailing Jelly Bean for since 2005 and never got bored.  I was starting to push the boundaries of her capabilties so decided it was time for a change. I wanted a boat that would be capable of safely crossing the channel but still retain the compact feel and shallow draft that I was used to.  I quickly narrowed my search to the Hurley 20 bilge keeler.  Despite being tempted by various boats for sale (Caprice, Vivacity, Alacrity and many more) I remained focused and  have just bought a Hurley 20  which needs a little tidying before she can go in the water next April.

As the boat is still at the previous owners farm in Bicester there is little that I can be getting on with, however there was one job which we could do.. The boat is currently called Comme Ci Comme Ca.. I wasn't fond of this so as a family we set about coming up with a name that we liked, suited the boat and would fit nicely on the dodgers :-)
Having had some great holidays in Italy we wanted an Italian name, some of those short listed were 'Da Cielo'(from heaven), 'Fuga' (Escape) and 'Piacere' (Pleasure) however after much deliberation, pasta, espresso, peroni and gelati we have decided on Ciao Bella.... well I think she's beautiful :D