Hi All...
     Well we have come around the corner and through the padock......(Bass Strait)
Currently in a place caled Eden......and a harbour called snug cove...

Which aint.
Bouncing off the jetty in 40 knots running straight in is a pain in the  ^%#

We sure are having a "proper winter" this year.

If anyone is interested we have a group email that goes out pm me your email address and I will add it to the list......

cheers
All......
SV Jannali

August 5th 2010 - In the beginning....
I'm starting this second MBB blog to cover just the interior finishing phase of building DreamCatcher. Hull construction through to exterior finish are covered under an earlier MBB blog titled 'Roberts V495-2', dated 2009-01-26 by nofacey.

Project of the week

Sept 2nd - BULKHEADS! Bit of a pain to fit, but big visual impact - enjoying finally seeing some definition to the interior. Figure I need to fit  8 partial bulkheads before I foam - 6 small enough to cut & fit straight thru hatch, 2 (Fwd head walls) that exceed my max 44" opening - so I'm cutting those 2 out of 3/8" ply and doubling up as I install - 1 split vertically, 2nd layer split horizontally - should come out plenty strong.


Above are the two forward head bulkheads - cross laminated 3/8" ply

Also did final install (love those words!) of chain locker door - glued and bolted into place

Took a break from fitting big bulkheads to do some smaller mechanical stuff - drilled/tapped/mounted/sealed the integral fuel tank level sensor - simplest sensor I could find.





bolted in wiper motors - one for each forward window - all are pantograph drives, had to be geared motors due to the size of windows and blades - and yes, windows are tempered glass, so they will survive being wiped.






August 31st - stormed for the first time in 6 weeks - found siliconing the top lip of my forward portholes did the trick - so I know the leak path there now, and can address properly when I do the final assembly after finishing the interior liner (won't be this year...) - aft deck hatches - both still leak - 1 like a sieve, the other in slow drips. Will have to rework, possibly redesign.

- more distressingly, my large center window/hatch drips very slowly in a down pour. The source is not the hatch, but the frame to hull seal. path is not obvious from the inside - will need to go over the exterior , there might be a opening where I had spacers inserted to prevent squeezing out all the sealant.

Good news is the bilge is 100% overcoated, so no worries about rainwater inside now.

August 30th - finally finished all striping of primer, and overcoating in bilge. Still overcoating framing that will be in contact with wood furring strips or exposed after interior  foaming is complete.

A friend sent some new pics of the boat at the new storage site - here's a nice one


August 27th - still painting...who wanted a boat this big anyway?? (oh yea - that would be me...)

August 21st - still finish painting nooks and cranies inside. Also adding topcoat everywhere wood contacts the primed surface.

Couldn't help myself - started triming a few of the trickier furring strips inside - had some 5/8 " x 3" fir handy, it'll do well for the short straight pieces. Trying to figure out how I'm gong to fit the smooth curves of the radius chine - bit too sharp for 5/8x3 - either lots of kerfs in backside of strip, or steam bending - kerf will likely be faster, have to see if it wood splits too easily.

Little bit of rain, and two significant leaks
- the Fwd portholes - tightened up interior screws, mastic coming out all around exterior frame nicely - and water coming in like it was funneled. Tried not siliconing interior flanged porthole to exterior frame, wanting to get interior surface finished first - obviously, it makes great funnel. Have to figure out a temporary seal - trying a strip of putty on the outside lip for now.
- 2nd leak is the screws on the aft deck hatches - flange is fine - I'll just pull and goop those.

Added a handrail to the outside stairs coming up to the top of my intermediate work platform (read top of container at the stern of the boat) - feels nicer now.



August 15th - the good side to painting inside the hull when it's over 30 deg outside - the paint flashes reallll fast. Other than that -  movie scenes involving metal sweatboxes come to mind...

brush priming interior welds/joints, changed out fwd porthole bolts, tightening those up to get mastic to flow a bit more.

August 8th - built shelves & organized container, cleaned up/reorganized inside hull (had everything scured for the move), cleaned up some left over masking on windlasses. It also rained for the first time in 3 weeks - got to see where the leaks are! - Main windows and deck hatches all good (which is great!)
- two portholes up forward leaked around the frames where we'd used mastic vs 5200 - and the bolts are a touch long. Obvious solution is shorter bolts, suck them up and squeeze more mastic around - but I have not been been able to find 1-1/4" long oval head 1/4" mach screws - going to have to cut down 2 sets of bolts (arrgh). - some drips came in thru windlass chain opening - wind was from aft, but it's going to be that way all winter, the way the boat is sitting - stuffed some rags in there for now, suspect installing the anchor chain won't help, and there will always be windlass drips - or rags.
- main entrance hatch, which is temporary, and not curved to shed water sideways - note to builder...
- most of the quart of water that came inside was due to the 6 aft portholes being left open, and the rain blowing in from 1 side. Was hoping they were inset far enough that that wouldn't happen - live & learn.

August 5th - setting up new (and hopefully last!) building location - power/air to boat, organizing tools/parts in container, building stairs to top of container, which will become a landing/elevated work area for the interior work




August 4th - Exterior complete, we moved the boat to a secure location to finish the interior - a fenced compound with a container for parts, oodles of power in various voltages and a wood working shop adajcent. Boat mover was James Revoy of Bowline Boat moving (250)203-5463. Nice guy, great equipment, moves lots of boats (pleasure boats, tugs, and on top of everything else, commercial fishermen use him to bounce from side to side of Vancouver Island)
Smooth move into very tight quarters - no sweat.




July 30th - finally - enough space around me to get some good shots.















All interior drains done, I'm going through and improving the interior paint  - checking all the hidden corners, putting a finish coat of bilge paint down the center line end to end & into the bilge. Then furring strips, then foam! Found a local fellow that does all the boats (there's a couple aluminum boat companies ins Campbell River, so it's a reasonable volume), price isn't bad vs buying outside and doing myself, so I'm going that way.

July 22nd - was installing cockpit seat drains in evening, and a couple walked over to say how nice the hull looked - then ask where I got the mould from .......!  = First to be surprised that the hull was steel.     Mission accomplished - 10 years of work justified - went home with a big silly grin on my face.
 
July 20th - doing some plumbing - cockpit drains all done, thanks to brother in-law. 
He took some pics too!

I don't like planning. The reason being that, what ever plans I make, I can guaranty it is the one thing that will not happen. Life is full of surprises, good and bad.

Tuesday night I got a phone call from my sister: my mom had an accident. A horse fell on her as they were trying to load the not so collaborative animal in a trailer. My mom has two broken legs and has been in the hospital since.

.....still waiting for the weather to moderate.

A series of strong low pressure systems are spinning of the  Antarctic and keeping us stuck here. These systems drive our local weather , and make for such a changeable pattern.

We are looking for a slow moving high pressure system that will moderate the wind speed and help to keep the low pressure systems more southerly. These highs typicaly herald light northerly winds and can last for a week or more in Summer. Unfortunaely we are having a proper winter this year. (The first since 1998) and the lows are coming through  fast and strong...

Never mind...plenty to do on board.....

My front diesel tank has sprung a pin prick hole....AND I cant weld it up. It leaks straight into the front bilge, which means that water from the bilge can leak back into the tank.....
Big Bummer......
The solution that I am trying at the moment is to insert a complete stainless "Inner bilge liner". This has been completely epoxied in. A horrible job....done mostly upside down.

I have taken to wearing garbage bags on my arms to reduce some of the amount of epoxy that I have been wearing......

Wont know if it is sorted until the epoxy goes off and I stick a 100 litres of diesel back in to the tank.........cross fingers....

Ouch, I have been neglecting the blog again. Much has happen and now I just have to much to tell...all at once. I'm making my blogging difficult by always putting it back to later. Ok, I will not be able to catch up all in one post so, I'll take the pressure off, and try to limit myself to some short little reports over the next few days.

this is a test

.....First weather window opening......6 more sleeps....Big high predicted to enter southern Victoria next Saturday....

Hopefully it will be big enough to give us our three days of stable weather to make the dash.....

More as it happens.....

Well thats the last of the major items sorted. We are now down to the final load of food and other stuff ....

....and the search for a suitable weather window is a twice a day preoccupation....

So far the nearest is about 8 days out.....

TEST BLOG

chugging along.....

Jannali is now fully painted. The deck coat has worked out perfectly. Two coats of white, followed by an outrageeous amont of time with masking tape to make nice sections. A coat of a sandy colour liberal doese of blasting garnet and then another final coat. Attractive and very grippy.

Main sail has arrived. (The first brand new sail I have ever owned). A very nice job and about half the price of the local sailmakers (Yep I bought it from Hong Kong, made to order).