OK, Big shiny Bird back to OZ.
Boat sold to an apparenly unloving owner (glad she's not close by to watch deteriorate)
PPOR almost payed out from sale of boat, which then allowed us to start purchasing property.
As there was no way possible we could afford (or Justify) the extortianate mooring fees in Manly, we decided we needed a fallback position to moor her.
We remembered the yachties we met at Keppel Island a few years previously and there comments on how cheap Rockhampton was, so started to look.
Bloss came home with a printout of a place with a great view up the bend of the Fitzroy River off RE.com with vacant land never to be built on out back, so virtually river frontage and we could park the boat in view and get a crane to pick her up and place in the back yard to work.
The house wasnt much, but it begged for a massive deck, had unlimited views and was $97k.
We signed a contract (subject to suitability) and did a road trip.
I loved it (the site and future boatbuilding potentual) Bloss hated it, so we pulled out and as we left the place, drove past a freshly renoed place that was for sale and about to go open house and sale the next day.
This one was 500m to CBD , 50m to the boat club, 100 m to a pub (300m to a really good one) and I could still park the boat out front and have river views through the park.
The boat club charged a pittance for space on the hard to park the boat for work, so I didnt need my yard to work in, so we purchased this place instead.
It had pretty much new/refurbed everything (but will need a restump in a few years) and was a bit more expensive at $130k, but a much nicer house and a good place to run back to at latter stage in our life.
It is the Green house on the left
All rented nicely, all good, everybody happy, Bloss said no more buying, ones enough and get back to boatbuilding
A few months latter (after working on Bloss a bit) we decided that we wanted some more as we felt that it wasnt a bad spot and approached the neighbours.
They were just about to list and get a low set place, so we purchased their place as well,(without an agent).
The Brown house cost a smidge more than the greenie, but the land content is bigger and now we had 2 side by side with rear st access, a park and a view over the road.
Back to Boat building and we had both hulls glassed, faired primed and rolled and started the join up as per post 6
http://www.somersoft.com/forums/showpost.php?p=345776&postcount=6
Lots of jiggling around, sliding in and out ,backward and forwards and up and down, measuring, checking and rechecking levels (water and laser) until I had the hulls about 5 mm out of level and diagonal. In the scheme of things this is about 0.05% accuracy (pencil line 2mm, laser line 4mm) and I had spent nearly a week to get there, so close enough and way closer than a lot of pro built boats I had worked on.
Here she is in position with the first of the bridgedeck panels going in.
These were the same construction as the hulls, (42 x 16 Kiri planks with 600 gram Double bias cloth in epoxy resin)
Then to keep her all together and straight, some bulkheads.
These are what they call a drum bulkhead, this is the main one. 12 mm Gaboon ply, 100 x 25 Kiri braces and diagaonals and another 12 mm gaboon ply skin to close it off.
I did the back beam the same way, but used 9mm ply instead of 12mm (to save weight) and in reality, it is more than what is required when comparing to similar boats.
Next step was to start to do the decks and cabins so I decided to get the motors for her as access was easy now.
After looking and hearing just about everything, I decided on a pair of Cummins B3.3 as these were pretty much bulletproof, spun slow (1000 rpm less than Yanmar), had no turbo and immense amounts of Torque.
I figured on these probably outlasting my ownership on the boat.
I was given sizes and drawings and started builing in tanks, engine beds and placeing additional Bulkheads in, but when the motors turned up, they were a bit longer than speced, so a bit of a fight with the supplier, some nasty letters (which got me no where) and eventualy I decided to move on and just start cutting and smashing and change things around at my expense (only about $600 in material, but a few weeks work)
They are in now and should all be fine.
These are all sealed in now with back cabins built with room on top of engine room for a normal houshold Queen size bed. I still have acces Via a door in the front, and if the matress is moved I can acess and remove the engines from the top engine room hatch.
More later.
Dave
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