Lots of Wood!

Well, as outlined previously I managed to score a substantial amount of fresh (not recycled) kauri, rough sawn, 150 x 50 and 200 x 50's, mostly in lengths of 5.2m, a few were shorter but all were over 4m. 

After some consultation with project manager and guardian angel Herbert Krumm-Gartner (of Classic Boats NZ) I did the deal and he was kind enough to give me a crash course in timber appraising - closeness and straightness of grain, colouring, checks, shakes, bows, knots and other factors to be taken into account.  He also offered to store them in his timber racks in exchange for some planks, which is brilliant, and there's much more than I need anyway.  As a further bonus the Taupo seller offered to bring the sixteen planks up to Hamilton for me to collect, so yesterday I borrowed a truck from work and headed south.

Forgot half the things Herbert had told me to look for when I saw the wood, but when unloading it at his workshop he seemed happy with the quality (and quantity!) of what I'd bought.  Only the colour seemed greyer than expected, but this is only an appearance issue, not really a fault.  When varnishing I might have to experiment with staining pieces first.  Now once the hull is done this will be used for the stringers, seats, motor box, coaming veneer and other details.

More Bits

Well, had some downtime in the lead up to and following the birth of our third boy, Reuben Ria Worsfold.  Still not really in a position to focus on Jado, but haven't neglected her totally.  On November 1st Jim and Gina stopped in to bestow on me Jado's original tiller (see earlier post for pics).  This is a lovely gesture of Jim's, as he  had retained this one souvenir of his family's launch since she was converted to wheel steering in the mid-70's.

Bought a pair of nice shiny new bronze fuel fillers, and a bronze intake strainer.  Also, having looked for kauri in any useful sizes for months, just bought 0.75 cube of the stuff at a bargain price.  Hope to be collecting in on Monday.  Will update soon....

Engineering



Savage heat exchanger



Re-modelled input shaft

Gave the gearbox input shaft to R A Cottrell in Avondale along with a drawing and they had this remade within a couple of days.  It's a thing of beauty.  This means I could finally mount the gearbox to the Ford, which I think you'll agree looks very sexy, and check the alignment of all the bolts into the bellhousing.  Fortunately most of them are pretty sweet, but I'll make a ply pattern and re-drill the gearbox where necessary.

Miss Ford - meet Mr Parsons!

Roll, roll, roll your boat....

Well, the day arrived at last.  Al came over and helped me finish off the riveting - fitting the last of the rib patches and tightening some old ones under the stern.  Once that was done we were able to fit the frame I built a year ago, and start winching.  The stress came when we reached the halfway point and I had to hold the hull upright - on a very windy day - while the chain block was rigged around the other side.  The whole routine took just over an hour.  Now ready for phase two....

Frustration....

The last floor - promise!

A frustrating time, I guess it comes along in every project.  Have been working fairly continuously on Jado but don't have much to show for it.  Little details, some sanding and fiddling. My borrowed heat gun died, so I had to buy my brother a new one.  The bandsaw blade broke. The guy who I hire to help with the riveting has cancelled the last two weekends due to health, and we went away for one weekend, so things have stalled.  The final batch of riveting is all that's left to do before she can be turned over and it just isn't happening.  My new plan is to go and visit the Traditional Boatbuilding School - conveniently located in Hobsonville - and see if any of their students want some extra work.  My other niggle is with the engineer who told me he could modify the gearbox input shaft in a couple of hours, and has had it for three weeks.

Keel bolts ready to install - 28/8

On the positive side progress has been made on a few fronts. The Savage heat exchanger I bought turned out to be a gem.  Pulled the end caps off to clean it and found the all the tubes were clear and everything looks healthy. Went through it with the waterblaster and reassembled it.  Assembled the manifolds and carb on the engine, just waiting on a fuel pump that will fit under that oversized marine exhaust header.  Made up all the copper bolts for the keel and engine beds and fitted those.  Did one last cross-floor near the bow.  The old one needed lots of patching and it kept bugging me so in the end it seemed a better option to replace it.  It was tricky though, and had to be done over a couple of evenings.

Transformation

As delivered: New floors and engine beds, Peter Murton's workshop, June 2009.

New floors and engine beds, August 24, 2010.

Wedge of mahogany will support the forward end of
the floorboard.

A wee update:  Have been working on the engine beds and various other details.  The beds are taking shape and  are at the finishing stage.  The stbd one is being test fitted below.  The square of plywood bolted to the prop shaft was my primitive means of marking the shaft angle onto the beds.  Made up the wedge that supports the for'ard end of the floorboards - a simple little item but like many things in boats not as simple as it at first appears....some to-ing and fro-ing with straight edges and dividers was needed to get it right.  Tonight filled the holes left by Peter Murton's floors and engine bed bolts with timber.

I have also accidentally found a guy who can adapt the gearbox input shaft to the 100E - Victor at Transconverters said about $120, which is good enough for me, so I'll do some drawings and get the flywheel and shaft over to him on Monday.  Also bought a heat exchanger off a BMC Commander for $40.00, this should be more than adequate, and some taps and dies so that I can fabricate my own keel bolts soon.

Starboard engine bed trial fitting.

Had a very significant email from Jim Donald last weekend donating Jado's original tiller back to her!  It's a very unexpected and generous gift, especially in light of the fact that Jim has kept it as a memento since it was removed in the 70's.  Thank you, Jim, I hope I can do some justice to your faith.

Nearly there...

Engine bed undersides.



For'ard floor ready for sealing and fitting.





 

Spent the afternoon noodling away happily in the bilges.  Made up the for'ard-most floor, that's ready to be sealed and fitted now.  Then began working on the engine beds.  Shaped both the undersides, tomorrow I'll double-check the shaft angle and the position of the gearbox mounts, then I'll be able to form the upper edges and drill bolt holes.  Next major job - making and fitting keel and engine bed bolts.

Parson's Progress



Before, and....



....well, hopefully it's obvious.


Finished the cosmetic and mechanical renovation of the Parsons gearbox, spraying a final coat of machinery grey on Sunday (8th).  As the "before" photo shows, this took some serious sanitising - waterblasting, paint stripping, scraping, elec. wire brushing, sanding, vinegar dipping, parts washing, more scraping, waterblasting, painting.... then new seals and bearings.  But ready to be filled with fluid and mated to the 100E motor now.

Progress

Forward rib patch, showing the kind of 3-dimensional form required
 to follow the hull shape.

   A frantic weekend as I'd booked Dave's help for today, and then decided to replace a couple of extra ribs at the forward end.  They weren't cracked or rotten, but it looks as though there had been no floorboards there for many years, the bottoms of them are trampled to ribbons.  They were, however, long and twisted, so they took most of Saturday evening to reproduce.  One I made in two halves to keep the grain as straight as possible through the length of the rib.

   Got up early this morning and went nuts with the primer and CEPS and, drilling holes in floors and so on.  Dave showed up at 11 and we riveted in the four rib patches that were ready to go, then two of the floors.  The little links I made to join the ribs over the keelson were glued and screwed in place.

   The engine beds are rough-cut to length and propped in place to check the alignment of the new floors.  When these are all fixed in place (next weekend?) I'll be able to remove the heavy-looking banana-style ones - yay - and start whittling away at the engine beds.  Looking forward to that.

....and we're back!

Forced myself to take a month off to prepare for some music jobs, which was well timed as it was really too cold to work outside at night.  Now that the weather is turning I've done a couple of half days this weekend, and will try and do some evenings here and there.

Firstly, made the last four rib patches in the series, these can be sealed and installed hopefully by next weekend.  Gingerly cut three stopped dado's in the middle cross floor (by hand, I don't have a router) and started making up the gear lever mount.

Talked to Herbert a while back about the wisdom of removing one of the big ugly sawn floors from under the engine.  It's not original, but it is stronger than the regular floors in that area, as they are cut right down under the engine.  The ribs through this area (replaced by Peter Murton) are all butt joined over the keelson, so also contribute nothing.  I believe from the one rib that wasn't replaced here (see pic) that these would have all been one continuous piece from deck to deck.  Herbert suggested scarfing in patches down the middle to re-create this effect.  It's what I've been doing for weeks with the cracked pieces at the turn of the bilges, however these will be easy - seven little straight links.  I cut a strip of oak, chamfered the top corners and notched out the seven offending bits with my trusty Fein Multimaster.  All done in a couple of hours, ready to seal, glue and rivet.

A Good Day

   Ahh, twas a very Good Day.  First, I decided to dismantle the Parsons gearbox as it is unbelievably filthy inside and out.  I had previously attacked the casing with paint stripper and a drill-mounted wire brush, but there was still lots of work to do.  Emptied the oil out, really horrible thick brown syrup with a bit of water on top.  The output flange came off easily and once both end plates were persuaded free the entire shaft and all it's associated machinery came out in one piece, leaving the bands and selector mechanism.  The whole housing can now be thoroughly de-loused.  The bands look fine, and brother Al thinks we can match up replacement front/rear seals and bearings from Saeco, an automotive supplier.  This beats sending it to a marine engineer for a  service, I probably saved hundreds.

   Also received a parcel from the postie.  I can hardly believe it, it's Jado's original bow roller!  I've been leaning on Peter Murton to send me this for months, especially once I saw it on the bow of another boat that he was advertising.  Months of unanswered emails and vague promises, and now it's here!

Finally....!

   Yesterday did some more careful work on the central floor, and bought a 400mm auger bit to drill holes for the keel bolts (bought the copper rod for these already).  Sealed the seven rib patches I made last weekend and primed the areas to be patched.

   Today - FINALLY - hired a mate of my brother's (Dave Greenland) to help me stitch all those patches in, and we did eight in four hours.  Not much to show in pictures, but a good acheivement nonetheless.  Four more to cut out, make patches, seal and fit - they work out to about 1.5hrs each all going well.

Ribs continued.

   Yesterday got a full days work in, made seven rib patches in five hours - am either gettting faster or sloppier!  This leaves four to go, but can't do those until I find some sucker to lean on the end of a dolly as I can't cut into adjacent frames. 
   Starting making up the critical central cross-floor, this will be trickier than the others as it has stopped dado joints for the engine beds and gear linkage mount, plus an angled hole for the prop shaft, and a hole for the keel bolt, also at a slight angle to avoid the shaft.  The ends are notched to take in the ends of the ribs, and there are pieces screwed to it to support a small step in the floorboards.  Will look nice when it's done, however long that takes....

Holiday update

On June 6th my wife Kaori went to Japan for 10 days, so I had some leave from work to look after the kids...and work on the boat.  Didn't get as much done as I'd hoped due to being pretty sick for the first couple of days, and the weather being very bleak, but as of yesterday I had bolted/riveted in the new aft floors, repaired all the existing ones, sanded and primed the forward sections of the interior, made three new floors out of mahogany and sealed all these plus the remaining ribs and other odds and ends.

Three new floors, looking glorious in sealed mahogany, just
 resting in place for the photo opportunity.



   One more major cross-floor to do, although I won't pull that one until the others are all fastened in, then the three laminated ones will come out for good and Jado will be structurally and cosmetically much closer to her 1958 spec. There's also a little floor all the way forward which Peter Murton replaced, it looks like he put it adjacent to the original one and then removed that, I'll redo this one, too, as the keel bolt should pass through it and not beside it.


Under the junk...two new kauri floors.



  Having riveted in the outer ends of some of the floors I fancied that I could do the same feat with the rib patches.  Not really, I spent an hour doing one yesterday, it was no fun at all.  The main difference is that the patches need to be held in place while holes are drilled and the initial nails are driven in, and this proved very frustrating.  Will have to get some help as I keep finding more cracked ribs as I clean them up.  There's at least seven more to make.  When these are finally done it's just the engine beds to design and fit, then she'll be ready to turn over and strip!

Mechanical Update

Tuesday June 1.  Have been secretly working on the little 100E motor at work, mostly stripping, cleaning and reassembling as the engine is apparently a good runner.  Little hiccups - mucked about with oil pumps trying to get the stock ones to fit with a stock sump (the ones on the engine had been altered to fit over a Ford 10 crossmember) to no avail, finally realised that the oil pump had been mounted at 90 degrees to it's original position.  Had this all sorted and even put the required 4 pints of water in the sump to see what baffles might be needed, then decided the modified bits were better for the job.  Cute little Lees exhaust manifold wouldn't fit over the 100E side cover with it's breather valve in the way, so back to my sidevalve benefactor Martin Healey for a Ford 10 side cover and intake manifold.  He also found a MkI Escort carburettor which is a big improvement on the old Solex.

   Parsons box has been cleaned up with paint stripper and does fit (!) behind the motor, will only need a few holes re-drilled, and the input shaft re-made.

   Bought some castors and made a simple mobile stand for engine and gearbox, lengthwise pieces are the same size and distance apart as the planned engine beds, so this will allow me to fabricate the front mount and set everything up as though it was in the boat.

Riveting News

Sunday 30/5.  My old musical compadre and almost the only person I know who is keen on boats (having done a circumnavigation in his yacht "Triton" with wife Jean) Jim Cardow was kind enough to come and help rivet in a few rib patches.  We are probably a third of the way there with these patches, although I do keep finding more cracks as I clean up other ribs....  In a perfect world the boat would be re-ribbed but that is well outside the scope of my abilities/budget/time/energy.

Floors continued...

   Got a good days work in today, it felt pretty good having thought about it all week.  Have come to one dead end after another trying to find decent kauri in useful sizes, so have decided to press on with substitutes and use the real thing  - when I can find it - for the bright finished joinery only.  I used some nice kauri for a couple of cross floors, and regret it now as they'll be painted and hidden under the floorboards ultimately.  Bought some mahogany from BBS which will do the trick, actually it still seems a shame to paint over this, but at least it's readily available.
   First job was to give the rest of the aft floors (one new, one existing) two coats of CPES, and three coats for all the aft ribs as they are a bit average in places.  Next I chiseled and planed away a raised lip at the base of the aft bulkhead.  Any lingering doubts that this was an original feature were erased when I found it was fastened with two stainless screws, one bronze screw, and one copper nail.

Glueing kauri plugs into the midships floor, the engine beds
didn't come this far back.

Two new floors rough-sawn.

   Had an epiphany this week mulling over the engine beds.  The plan is to relocate them to their original position, which was slightly closer together than the later ones.  This was apparent looking at the plugged holes in the planks, and the modifications to the floor timbers.  What was not so apparent is why the aft-most floor was notched for the wider engine beds but didn't seem to have been altered at any point.  The answer finally dawned on me - the original engine beds didn't extend back that far, they stopped one floor further forward.  They would have been lengthened when the Cortina motor went in during the 70's to cope with the extra power.  So, today I plugged the notches in the floor in question.  Also removed the prop shaft and cut out two new mahogany floors to replace the ones that Peter had removed.  These will need final fitting and new bronze bolts.

Owners Past

April 9th.  Took advantage of having a conference in Rotorua and arranged to call on Jado's last owner (in a functioning state, at least), John "JD" Donald of Lake Tarawera.  John has a spectacular spot on the northern side of the lake, a property purchased 70 years ago by his grandfather, with a jetty and mooring where Jado was once kept.  He was very generous with his time, leafing through piles of photos and giving me a tour of the dozens more on the walls - along with the mounted stag heads!  He thought he may have the tiller - this will be the second one made for Euan in the 80's - but couldn't find it at the time.  It was good to hear first-hand his stories of "Fishing Machine" (as he called her) and her eventual loss.

  From there I had a quick feed in Rotorua then on to Whakatane to see Bill Carter, an expert wooden boatbuilder and custodian of Jado after the storm damage.  Bill had casually hinted that he might have the original  bollard somewhere, and this he duly produced!  He also dug out some photos taken both on Tarawera and after the damage, all very interesting to see how JD had her set up.  Also interesting to hear from JD how little he may have changed her after buying her from Euan.  Stern seat and copper tanks were a complete surprise to him, although he did convert her from tiller steer to a stainless lever mounted in the centre thwart.  Bill also kindly gave me a copy of an older picture of Jado's predecessor - another very similar Vos-built launch with JD's father on board.  All in all a very worthwhile journey.

The original fairlead has been located.  I had always suspected it was with Peter Murton and now have proof - it's on another boat he is advertising for sale!  I have sent the one he included with the boat back down to him (on the 3rd) and am waiting to hear back.  The only other missing deck hardware - now long gone - will be the pair of stern cleats.

Anzac Weekend

Sanded....

....and primed.

   Got a bit done this weekend, things are starting to trundle along.  Firstly, the Parsons gearbox is definitely 1:1 as I'd hoped, and looks like it will mate directly to the 100E motor.  Am waiting on an oil pump so that the engine can come off the stand then we'll see.  The input shaft is pretty flogged, I might give the whole gearbox to Moon's or somewhere, as it's obviously done many hours and will have earnt a birthday.

Split cross-floor removed



Engine beds ousted!


   Yesterday finally got a coat of primer inside the aft section planking  and the area under the foredeck.  Then spent a couple of hours notching out four more cracked ribs aft.  This morning made oak patches for five sections and those are ready to go in.  Removed the 3rd floor (from aft) as it is split quite a way across, and removed the engine beds too.  These are the wrong profile, width, are notched over floors that will be removed (non original) and are not parallel!  Have tried unbolting these before, but as there's nothing to grip under the boat the whole bolt revolves and various brainwaves had all failed to produce a result, unless the result was turning the bolt... I finally realised that as the beds were to be scrapped, why was I trying to find a tidy solution when I could just butcher them and put vice grips on the bolt - voila!

O, for a Gearbox

The search for a suitable gearbox - preferably a Parsons as per original spec - has been ongoing since the decision was made to refit a Ford sidevalve motor instead of the Kubota diesel I had purchased.  I finally found one for sale in Whangerei (Mangapai, actually) and drove up today to collect it.  Unfortunately it is bolted onto a WaterMota Sea Panther diesel (converted from a Cortina 1600, apparently), and I had to buy the whole package.  The trip went smoothly enough, thanks to the use of a truck with a tailhoist on it!  The beast is now clogging up our carport, and the motor will have to be sold pronto.  I'll remove the gearbox tomorrow and hopefully post some pics.  Hopefully it a) mates to the Ford without too much drama, b) is 1:1 ratio, haven't been able to check....

Photos from Herbert

Had a visit from Herbert on Sunday (18/4), who brought a CD of pictures he'd taken during Jado's stem and plank surgery last October.