Hello! Today we had a timing problem. Estonia, together with the rest of the European Union, shifted its clocks back one hour to winter time. This means, as some like to say, “one more hour for sleep.” In any case, it also means that the alarm of the shop turns on one hour earlier. When it got dark outside, we started checking the time to get out before the security gets in. Later, Joosep remember that he had not turned his watch back, so we actually left a little early. That aside. Things are looking good in general. Completing the hull is now a feasible perspective. Soon, we will have smeared 50 kg of epoxy onto the boat. Another 25 kg is probably in order. Lets have pictures:
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- Joosep started on the bow chamber, in which we plan to store some rope and the bow anchor. On the picture, the pieces which separate the usable area from the foam filled buoyancy section.
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- The bow chamber without paint.
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- The bow chamber painted. We decided on using, as recommended by John Welsford, an oil based enamel paint. White, of course.
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- Routing the companionway hatch runner slots.
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- The process of fitting a companionway hatch stainless-acid resistant steel runner. It took some angle grinder discs to cut two stripes. Nothing compared to what Dough Jackson has been cutting for his 25 m sailboat. But we have our moments, in metalworking too.
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- Runners dry fitted to the hatch.
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- Uku working on the hatch slides. It took some mental and physical effort to get the things alligned properly. The boat is not that easily accessible, so every time you forget to take a pencil with you, you have to climb out of the companionway and down the aft of the boat. Takes time. But practice makes perfect. Feeling more and more related to the great apes.
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- My personal agnel grinder record. I wonder if there is a minimum diameter limit on cutting discs.
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- This is what the runner/slide mate looks like. All dry fitted.
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- Pieces waiting to be glued to the deck. Pieces of the companionway hatch and slide.
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- We had to blow some dust off of our old good PVC steamer setup. This time it was needed to steam an out of proportion small piece of oak for the hatch. Worked like a charm.
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- What the hatch slide looked before it was decorated with bevels.
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- First deck plate fit. Looking good.
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- Out of blue, while beveling the gunwales, we got the idea of clamping a strip of plywood to the kingplank as an arch reference. Worked well!
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- Joosep working on scarfing the bow deck plate.
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- The result of finding out that the optimum pressure for a wood-to-wood epoxy joint is actually rather high. In total over 300 kg of weight, but not that impressive when concidering it in newtons per square meter.
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- Glassing the deck plate and rudder sheet.
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- Alexei Stahhanov again producing more than the work quota requires. “This month, we ground down ten additional screw points. Today, the Žiguli (USSR beer) is on me.”
