Bumblebee: [through his radio] "Message from Starfleet, Captain... Let's get to it!"

After a short and not so much snowy winter it's back into the boat shed. The pictures of a few other TW28's underway as well as the launching of Fabio's TW28 have re-invigorated me (somewhat!). *Yeah!*

So I'm looking at the fwd bulwarks where they wrap around the hull. When I line them up and they rest on the cross pieces attached to the strongback they refuse to fall into any sort of natural curve. If I line up the bow and where the bulwark join the sides it leaves a gap of about 3/8" (see photo)

Another picture from the starboard side.

It's the same on both sides. I'm sure I've got them lined up according to plans. I've looked at pictures of previous builds and didn't see any others like this. Or, is 3/8" not that much of a bother, just fill it up with goop and carry on? If I force them flat to the hull they come out of alignment and flair out an extra inch on each side. Did I explain that well enough? *Doh!*

My epoxy resin turned into a big slushie over the winter so the proper application of heat corrected that! *Whew!*

Had to scramble up on the shed

last night to fix a rip in the plastic. Lori stood by on the ladder in case I took a tumble. At least she could try to break my fall! :-) Lucikly there were no injuries and the rip has been temporarily repaired with "Gorilla Tape" (good stuff).

I'm not much for climbing ladders and my track record pretty much sucks when I do so I'll leave more permanent repairs to my buddy Andrew sometime soon. :-)

Everything in the shed is pretty damp. A lot of water puddled in the fwd end when the ground froze. I might have to put in a small drainage ditch for next year. I've got some leftover OSB so I'll cut that up and make some floors to go around the boat.

Weatherman is predicting +18 deg C tomorrow and almost as nice for the weekend so hopefully we'll get this ball rolling again soon. Standby.....

It's been awhile

since I bought anything for the boat project. The winter months slow down the buying naturally I guess but today I sprung for something I've had my eyes on for awhile.

For those of you that haven't seen one of these before it's a simple pump to empty your engines crank case. Now on a boat that can be a bit of a challenge (and messy) especially when you have to stand on your head in the bilge. Combined with the fact I'm not my old svelte 170 lbs anymore changing oil is a real pain in the arse.

This particular model I picked up on e-Bay for about half retail. I like that. Not that I'm cheap I'm just efficient when it comes to buying boat equipment! :-) This model also reverses for filling the crank case. No muss and no fuss. I'm going to have to plan space for a removable waste oil canister now! :-) I think the Yanmar takes 8 litres so a 25 litre gas can would do three changes.

One other thing I picked up this week was a Raptor Nails (TM) stapler and staples. I've heard a lot about Raptor Nails over the years and decided to give them a try for myself. What are Raptor Nails you ask? Well they're plastic staples. They can be used with fiberglass & epoxy and don't have to be pulled after the epoxy cures. I think this will come in very handy when laying up the outer layers of glass for the hull.

The project spreadsheet and photo inventory have been updated.

http://www.editgrid.com/user/knottybuoyz/Spent_To_Date

http://s237.photobucket.com/albums/ff166/KnottyBuoyz/KBIII/Inventory/?start=all

Later folks......