Re-building the Dewdrop
This is the story of the "Dewdrop" (previously "Kathleen-Charlotte"). She's a Wooden Silhouette MK II, designed by Robert Tucker and built by Hurley Yachts of Plymouth in 1960. She was literally saved from the bonfire November 2006 and was given to me as a project. PLEASE READ FROM THE BOTTOM UP and feel free to leave comments!(More info on Silhouette's can be found at www.soia.org.uk) ***PLEASE READ FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE BLOG UPWARDS!***
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
I've got the first coat of primer on. This will highlight any areas I may have missed when filling/sanding. These areas will be put right and then primed again.
This process may be repeated several times until a perfectly smooth surface finish is achieved. Only then will the undercoat ang gloss be applied.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Companionway Cut-out
This was a tense moment. All that work of bonding the Coachroof together and then I had to cut a hole in it!!
It worked out perfectly to size and I like to think this was down to judgement rather than luck! Although the plans and long accurate straight edges certainly helped......
As you can see, the new hatch runners were offered up to obtain a precise measurement for the cross member, as the tenon joints vary slightly no matter how careful you measure them on the bench. Let's not forget that boats need that little bit of "freelancing" from time to time!
Coach-roof bonding
I've bonded the last layer onto the coachroof. It's now 12mm as per the original plans. I toyed with the idea of going to 18mm for rigidity, but when I stood on top of the cabin this afternoon I realised that 12mm is plenty strong enough! It still needs to be planed flush and I'll remove the screws before filling in any holes.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Cabin Doubler Pieces
The first layer of coachroof was glued on today. As you can see from the pictures, I fabricated some doubler pieces all the way round to add rigidity and provide a bigger area for fixing the roof to.
On the front section I've extended the doubler down in between the two windows. This is to give extra strength as the majority of the surface area here is taken up with the window apertures.
I used some left-over 6mm from the roof for this job.