Finishing Off

   Did a few hours of painting last night, basically rolled a coat of grey marine primer over the whole hull in about 30 mins, then started priming the cotton in the seams.  Quickly realised that at 10 mins per seam x 26 seams this would take some time, so finished off this morning with some cut-down paint brushes courtesy of Herbert.  We won't putty the seams at this stage, as the boat is going into hibernation.  This means that the putty would dry out and when the boat was finally launched and the planks swelled it would simply crack.  So puttying will be done nearer the finish line.

   The final job was to tidy up the keel repairs and fit a keel "shoe", a sacrificial strip of hardwood to protect the keel from grounding, beaching, and trailer wear.  I had donated some Jarrah beams to Herbert a while back so we were able to take a slice off one of these - an extremely hard wood and ideal for this purpose.  After dry fitting it with stainless screws we trimmed it to width with a router (which caused problems) and eventually and plane and sander.  Then we red leaded the keel and end grains of the Jarrah and fitted it with silicone-bronze fasteners.

Trimming keel shoe with a router - big mistake!

Leading end of keel replaced and faired in.

Finished keel shoe.

Jado set up in Herbert's workshop

 







Roll over was fairly straightforward with a chain block, and back onto the trailer at last.  I know it's only primer, but great to see her in a uniform colour, rather than the scabby, stained paintwork, and latterly the almost bare timber look.  First "proper" paint job since the late nineties, I think.

A Day Of It

Double strands for this seam.

   Well, did 12 hours of caulking today, plus Herbert did a few seams too.  Nearly finished - three seams on the starboard side to go out of about 26 total.  Being an old boat the seams are not very even, not just different from one seam to the next but the width also changes along their length, so you have to keep changing irons, looping the cotton, or doubling strands in certain places.  Unfortunately a previous caulker has been pretty callous and there is much damage to the plank edges where they have missed the seam, or maybe used a larger iron than ideal.  We ended up having to trim out the crushed timber with a pull saw and this was time consuming.  Consequently one seam length took about 40mins on average.

   Herbert glued some repairs into the keel, but won't finish them off yet as all the dust would go into the seams.  Tomorrow night I'll go back after work to give the whole shebang a coat of grey primer.

Caulking

Battening and striking waterline, using the paint-filled original as a guide.

   Trailered the inverted Jado up to Classic Boats in Kumeu first thing today, and she was unloaded and blocked up in Herbert's workshop by 9am.  A thankfully short but nerve-wracking drive, watching the 2x4 chocks on the mudguards in the wing mirrors.  First we reset the six engine bed bolts, as I had struggled with fitting those.  Improved the countersinks from both sides, added extra washers and caulked the heads.  Then we battened and struck the waterline using a pull saw.  Herbert begins repairs to the keel by replacing a broken forward piece and opening out some cracks with his Multimaster and a miniature router so that these can be glued.

Caulking going in around stem.

   Caulking begins with the garboard seams.  Any caulking wheeled in goes in quickly, but unfortunately the size and condition of the seams varies so we need several different irons plus the wheel to get it right, even over the length of one seam.  By the end of the afternoon I had done the garboards and three seams on the port topsides.  Such a luxury to both work in a workshop, and with an expert on hand - in fact, anyone on hand for some jobs.  Back tomorrow....

All Aboard...

Mission: get Jado off her frame and onto her trailer.  First, jack the stern up  bit by bit.  Can I trust the sawhorses?

Then raise the bow.  

Remove the frame she's been sitting on and wheel the trailer underneath.

Then I had to be creative to support the bow whilst getting the trailer in position.  Now to lower the nose onto chocks...

...and tie everything down.  Basically the only parts of the boat making contact with the trailer are on  the mudguards and stem, there's a lot of boat aft waving in the breeze, and I made sure to hook the trailer up to the car beforehand.  I think if it was undone the stern would descend with some force!  All up, about 3hrs work, but went smoothly and nothing got damaged.  Now I'll be happy when we get to Herbert's, it's not an ideal way to transport a boat.

Wet blankets covered by tarps to slow the drying out.

   An effort this summer to complete Jado's hull, most urgently the underside so that she can be placed right side up on her trailer for storage whilst we are in Japan.  Seams are all cleaned out and primed in red lead, and she is currently hibernating under some wet blankets to prepare her for caulking.  Monday 25th she will go up to Herbert's workshop (still inverted, but on the trailer) and we will spend a couple of days getting as much done as possible, before priming the hull and turning her with Herbert's gantry.  Then she will be ready for the next phase, which is installing mechanical components and fitout, once we return from Japan in a couple of years.
    Meanwhile I have found the perfect storage, in an open-ended shed on a property in Kumeu.  Far preferable to a commercial lockup where she would be outside in the sun.  Will post photo's hopefully, will need to borrow a camera to do this.