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.

   No pretty pictures this time, as Jado looks no different.  However, some good work has been done.  All paint is now stripped and am currently reefing out the old caulk, some of which is a breeze and some of which is very slow.  Generally the seams higher up - near the sheer - are still quite tight, the ones below the waterline you could push $2 coins through.  In quite a lot of places the cotton has been driven into the face of the planking rather than into the seam by someone who was a bit hasty with the caulking iron/wheel.  I can scoff now, but I'm sure to learn all about that shortly!
   Also bought a plunge router to deal with some of the cracks in the keel, Herbert's suggestion.  The method he described sounded so simple, which is always the case with Herbert's advice!   Next purchase will need to be a shop vacuum, my trusty Philips is no more, and need to get those seams hygienic....

Claim 77359628

Re: Claim # 77359628

To Whom It May Concern,
                                         regarding the claim above which is still in progress I have managed to recover a number of items that I found advertised on Trade Me.  Henderson Police returned them to me yesterday and so I now wish to withdraw this claim.
 
   This claim which was originally filed on August 6th.  I completed the forms online as I was told over the phone that this was the quickest way to proceed - so much faster than the old-fashioned paper forms -  and faxed the relevant receipts etc.  I was contacted very smartly by a caller who, having cast an eye over my submission, suggested that my tools with a total replacement value of over $3000 might not be worth claiming at all.  When asked if replacement value was not what my policy entitled me to, he waffled something about having not checked my policy yet, and would look into it once a privacy release document was signed.

   This was duly posted out to me along with a claim form to fill in, identical to the one I had completed online over two weeks prior, apparently in the interest of immediacy!  To these I attached copies of receipts for most of my items, photos of owners manuals and packaging left behind, plus written quotes for replacement items from two major hardware stores. This was bundled off to Tower in late August.  Following this up with a phone call I mentioned that my policy had "New for old option: Selected" on it.  This I took to mean that if someone stole, for example, my TV, then it could be replaced with a new model of equivalent size and brand. The helpful operator pointed out, however, that this "new for old option" only applied only to a specific list of items.  He read me the list of items covered, tools were not on it. Therefore I was only entitled to a present day value to be determined by Tower. I can find no wording on my policy detailing any inclusions or exclusions relating to the "new for old option" I had "selected".

Having not heard anything for some weeks I phoned on approximately September 17th and was told someone would call me within 24hrs to discuss the status of my claim.  This they did, and they acknowledged that my bundle had been received, and that what they were waiting for was a copy of the police report, which could take up to five weeks!  So I waited...

  When several items were recovered and finally returned to me on October 11th (nearly ten weeks after my online claim was submitted) I mentioned to the detective in charge of my case that Tower Insurance were waiting for the police report.  Imagine my disappointment when he told me one had not yet been requested.

Regards, Kerrin Worsfold

The Naked Boat

Finished stripping the hull - port side only, but still a milestone.  JD painted her in 2-pack in the nineties, so it all had to come off.  Also happy to find the original waterline as scribed in the planking during the original build.  It had been painted nearly an inch lower at the stern, but was more or less right by the time it arrived at the stem.  Will probably batten this off and re-scribe it just to make sure it doesn't vanish again under coats of primer.

Back from the Dead.

Not dead, just a bit sore!  My ongoing episode of renal colic which began before Xmas has discouraged me from doing...anything, including working on Jado this year.  Towards the end of a four week spell of working 7 day weeks I found that thieves had broken into our basement and stolen all my tools, power and otherwise, that I've acquired over the last couple of years, which was devastating.  Devastating too was the insurance company pleb who recommended I not claim the loss - a work in progress as I write!

On a happier note, having earned two days off (in a row!) I re-clad the carport in fresh tarps to replace the ones shredded by the winter winds, repaired the basement door, and bought a few tools to begin again.  Have done some scraping of the port bilges this year but need to tackle this in earnest next.  Was also happy to find a nice vintage bilge pump of the type described to me by Jim Donald.  It mounts on the port stringer, just ahead of the for'ard thwart.  It is pictured as it arrived today, but will get stripped, dipped and renovated shortly.

Also bought another bronze bollard a few weeks ago, to replace the "original" one Bill Carter dug out for me.  I'm positive it wasn't from Jado, aside from the material evidence of marks left on the damaged deck king plank, it looks more rounded than earlier photos indicate.  The latest one is definitely not original either, but does look a better match for what was put there by P Vos Ltd in 1958.

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.