Port side Caulked

All the port side is now caulked with the exception of the garboard, I just need to fair the
plank above it before I caulk it.
I then painted all the seams ready for putty. I need to get Ken to rivet up the the other side
with me before I can continue caulking.

A start on the mast

We set today aside to make a start on the mast. We also went through the running and
standing rigging and sussed out what was what and what we need to replace. It seems
that we are only missing the jib and foresail halyards and the bobstay needs replacing.
The rest is serviceable.
We split the wider planks of Douglas fir and ran it all through the surfacer so its now
ready for me to go ahead with the scarf joints. I also need to set up stands the full
length of the mast for working on.
As well as Teals mast I'm also building a 30ft mast and a 17ft boom for someone
else at the same time so thats why there is so much timber.

This is a good sign

I'm getting the hang of it now. 8 seams caulked. I need to find or try and make a thinner
hardening up iron for the narrow seams, The one I have will only fit in the widest seams.

Caulking

I finally made a start on caulking today, Only managed to do two seams but I'll be getting better
at it and I know where to find the caulking irons now. Its hard on the hands when your not used to it.
I'll prepare some of my cotton at home before I go at it again so at least I won't have to go
messing with that while I'm there.
I got a 5 minute tutorial from Phil before I started and Liam and Leo gave me some tips later so I'll
hopefully know what I'm doing soon.
Anyway I'm happy with what I did and I didn't burst the inside of any planks or anything so, so far
so good.
When I have to open tight seams for caulking there is parafin squeezing out of the planks which I'm
glad to see. Nice to know it is indeed soaking in and not just money evaporating into thin air.

These are the plank edges I added either side to make up for the open seams

Engine

I just put a deposit down on a 12hp Petter mini twin for Teal. It needs some work but
looks a nice tidy engine and is nice and compact. It also means that we can go ahead
and plan our engine beds and cockpit now that we have dimensions. I won't be picking
it up for a while though.
Tomorrow I'm planning on starting caulking some of the tighter seems on the port side.

Preparing for caulking

Teal is getting regular soakings with parafin and boiled oil. We are waiting for her to take up
so we're getting all the other bits and pieces ready in the mean time.
We spent all of Wednesday riveting and have nearly finished the Port side. We'll get on
with the starboard side the next day Ken is free.
Today I took the fastenings out of the forward 4ft of two of the planks below the water line
on the starboard bow where the seams were two big to caulk, the worst on the whole boat.
I planed down the top edge of the lower one for re-edging and wedged them apart to close
the seams either side, then refastened them and glued on a 4ft pitch pine wedge to fill the gap.
Now the seams are nice and tight. Next I will have to do the same on the other side.
I forgot the camera so will catch up with pics the next day.

Kevin O Farrell was in to take some pics the other day while we were riveting. Have a look at
his facebook page. Loads of great pics from Hegartys yard.
http://www.facebook.com/KevinOFarrellPhotographer?fref=ts

All raked out.

We went down today to go riveting but forgot the roves and the snips so we went raking
out while we waited for them to be dropped off. We had roves by lunch time but the raking
out was going really well so we stuck at it and much to my surprise got 95 percent of it
finished. Although no riveting got done in the end. I need to make a thinner hook for the
next day to pull some remaining cotton from the very back of the seams. These hooks
did a really good job of breaking up the hard putty, but we found a few areas where the
putty was still softer and much more difficult to remove.

The straight one was made from the remains of a silicone gun and the  other with a length of 10mm mild steel bar, the handle made it very good for breaking up the putty fast .