Friday 1 October 2010

Noahs ark




Another new month has arrived and im already wondering where this will be in 31 days from now. I certainly dont want another day like this one as its rained, rained and rained some more, then when I thought it was finished it realy rained.

Water is supposed to be on the outside but almost half the bilge area has water in it. I found out that the flexible acrylic sealant I was advised to bed the window frames in with doesnt work.
Its actually water based, which makes me wonder how the hell it can be water proof. At the moment, it resembles runny yoghurt and is about as much use as soggy rice paper. To add insult to injury, its stripped the red oxide paint off the steelwork
This means I have to wait for a nice dry day, take them out, clean them up, paint and replace with sealant which is more reliable. Regular silicone has never let me down.

Anyway, on Wednesday I ordered 3 packs of paving blocks, total weight 3.75 tons, 1404 bricks in total for the bilge ballast. I finished cutting back the insulation and cleaning up the mess, over 12 bags of it, but its a once only job so I dont mind. Yesterday I got the timbers bolted to the scantlings and was back at work early this morning to tighten all of the 83 bolts.

Then the bricks arrived and I had no sooner got the forklift and taken the window out and it started to rain more heavily.

I managed to unload and lay the first pack of bricks before I was totally soaked to the skin, so I sat in the car with the heater running to warm up and dry out a little. The day was a washout, the kind of rain that comes up with the tide so I departed for Hereford to collect some bits and pieces.

4 comments:

  1. You are really going to be in shape when you finish this project.
    When you are working on something like this it seems never ending but one day you look up and it all comes together. The silicone sealer will do the job very well and is also and adhesive. I think you are doing quite well taking into account the size of the project. john

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  2. I have some emergency repairs to do this morning.
    I need to make another hole in my belt as ive lost more weight. It doesnt mean im extra skinny now, but does give some idea of how porky I had become.

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  3. Hi Amy are you sure you have enough balast the boats off you size I built had about 10 tons to get them down in the water by 24 ins and I built boats with chines not flat bottoms like your boat.?

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  4. lincsoldbird

    Mine is a chined hull and I have put about 2 tons in so far. The designer of the boat says it needs to be 25 tons in all. I have done a spread sheet since I bought the boat with what I've added and what I estimate will be added. I am not far off 25 tons ATM with my calculations. I have room to add another 2 tons in the first level and room to add another 4 tons on a second layer. I have left these floor sheets temporarily fixed and this will be done once in the water

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