Boat Plans Aluminium | More paint

Boat Plans Aluminium

I usually try for Thursday or Friday for each weeks post, but I’m a day or two early this week.

Painting is happening.  Yeehah! Not far to go now.

When painting, the undercoat tends to show up all the nasties, the blips and bumps that should have been sanded out the holes that were not filled, the  high spots that should have been taken down, nail heads that still show and the glossy bits on the epoxy that should have been flatted off.

All the bits you don’t want people to see. 

So I paint early, just one coat of primer undercoat, then go over it with the sander and filler,  that’s where I’m at now with SEI.

I’ve got one end primer painted, I’m sanding at the other end, mainly with the magic FEIN multitool in triangle sander mode, the point of the triangle amazingly effective at sanding the radius in the corner fillets, and I’m finish sanding and am hiding the worst of the blemishes with filler back in the stern.

I figured I’d try a little of the colours, I’ve gone lighter and brighter than usual as the paint, apart from the gunwale, is satin finish so wont reflect as much light. That plus selecting from a tiny square of colour on a piece of card with two dozen others is a bit of a raffle.

I have mixed feelings on the result, it’s a bit “toy soldier”,  maybe duller colours next time.

But the paint has been bought, has been mixed and is there, so that’s whats going to be used.  I’m sure I’ll get to like it in a while.

Bright colours, they look better when the paints dried to its satin finish, and I think Ill put a little more green in the mix to make it slightly darker. Might even do something to dull the red a bit.

Still, whats life without some experimentation.

 The shops in a mess Ive some extra gear and nowhere much to put it so the next job after the boats done is to build more shelving up high.  Need that storage.

But the boats looking ok, Ive not made an exceptionally nice job of her, shes a hurried build but structurally ok.  Really shes a testbed and proof of concept build, and Ive had rather a lot of other things that needed attention so its a bit of "do as I say not as I do" in this case.

In places the paint looks good, hides lots of sins, the next coat will hide all that. I’m working my way forwards with sander, filler and brush as the wind howls in the trees around the shed.  Its rough water out there on the estuary, with the wind against the tide its definitely not kayak weather.  Inside the shed, working away dreaming of days out on sparkling water with gentle breezes is just fine, so being in here with the paintbrush and sander is no hardship.

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Wood Boat Plans And Kits | Lots of fun but no holiday!

Wood Boat Plans And Kits

Much too busy!

I have been flat out working at SCAMP Camp ( with a side expedition to the dentist to get a broken tooth fixed) pretty much ever since I got here to the Port Townsend area so have been very lax in my postings here on the blog.

We do though have a pretty good Facebook page up and running, thanks to my helpers there, thats Jackie, Pete and Chuck.  Lots to read and lots of pics.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/440526479459574/

We’re having a lot of fun at the SCAMP build class, halfway through the build class the boats are about on track with all of the frames and internal structure up, and tomorrow (Monday) we’ll be hanging the first pair of planks,  filleting  which is a seemingly endless task, fitting the cleats to which the cockpit floor and seat tops will be fitted  and organising for the second pair of planks.

By Wednesday the boats should be all planked up, “Real” boats, and this crew are doing a nice job of them.  Well done Dana, Bruce, Steve and Daniel.

The photo software “here” is not working the way I want, so please forgive the lack of pics on this post, it wants to do “Cloud” storage rather than keeping them on my hard drive, I’ll work it out.

In the meantime, its Sunday morning as I write, I had a little sleep in, and am now fiddling around learning the new sofware on the Macbook Air I’ve just bought as a replacement for my old laptop.  Nice, it runs for around 12 hours on a charge, great! The old one struggled to get 2 hours.

So I was reading some of the threads over on the WoodenBoat forum, a good plae to “hang out” when wanting some interesting reading, and found three threads on builds of my designs there that will interest.

Suzy Jackson is coming along well with her Navigator build, lots of pics there,

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?176883-Elena-a-Welsford-Navigator-cruising-sloop

Mal is making very good progress with his Sundowner,

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?148391-Welsford-Sundowner-build

This is a very substantial little boat, lots of space inside, and he’s doing a decent job of it.  Nice work Mal.

There is a good thread on a SCAMP build “here”.  Bruce in South Australia is coming along well with his little boat, and has documented the victories and trials that he’s encountered along the way.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?182771-Romana-de-Scamp

And there is discussion on the big “Pilgrim”  open boat cruiser I designed for myself a while back but never got further than the frames before circumstances meant I had to abandon the build and find somewhere else to live and work.

The pics of Chip Matthews big curvy beauty are well worth a look.

Thanks Chip.

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?86953-Pilgrim-from-John-Welsford

I’ll be back in a couple of days, I promise.

John Welsford

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Boat Plans Canada | Buying the rope for the new boat

Boat Plans Canada

Well, we’re past the spring equinox, so its autumn for a lot of my friends in the northern hemisphere, the best time of year many tell me.  We’re into spring here, warmer, more sun, and the orchards and fields are covered in flowers. 

It’s a lovely time of year, while there are still stormy days to come the promise of summer is very evident and it’s a real incentive to get on with getting boats ready for the season.

I’ll have to haul the ship out this summer, its three years since she was antifouled and the topsides need painting, so I’m buying sandpaper, getting all the gear ready and will be all ready and prepared when the time comes.

George and Pam are getting some new steelwork done on the old slipway cradle at the Whangateau Traditional Boatyard and if that’s all done, that’s where I’m going.  I’d rather that they had the bucks than the corporate that runs the local marina.

I went out to day and happened past “Quality Equipment” in Glenfield on Aucklands North Shore. They’re rope manufacturers, and have a “rope shop” which is open to the public.  The prices are very very good.

Leon is the man there, good guy. 

So, with rigging SEI in mind, plus some replacement  ropework needed on the good ship May, I stopped in and came out with a 100m roll of 6mm yachtbraid for halyards and controls, and a 100m roll of 4mm polyester solbraid for reefing lines on the smaller boat.

Yes I’ll have lots left over, but there will be other boats, and buying this way cost about $180. (US$113), That’s a lot of rope for the money, way less than the price the “yotshops” sell at.

Yes they do cut lengths although the best way to buy is a full roll. (Split it up among you and your friends). They’ll ship to you as well. (within NZ that is)

www.qe.co.nz

Email Leon at   leon@qe.co.nz   Tell him I sent you, it might help my discount next time I’m in there.

 Lots of "string", in imperial measure about 325 ft on each. Ive already got the mainsheet on another roll bought for a boat a while back.  I keep a fair inventory, some people see my shop as being a ships chandlery in itself, I suppose that theyre right, except its one with only one customer.

My next stop was not such a happy one.  I’ve a Bosch GEX 125 random orbital sander, its probably 15 years old now, done lots of work, had a couple of bearings and a new set of brushes, and while effective enough is not my favourite tool. But I because I have it, I use it.  
I generally have fine paper on that and coarser paper on the Festool Rotex which IS my favourite tool of that type. But its worn out the velcro on the pad, so I went to the Power Tool Shop in Wairau road, yes they had one in stock, yes sir here it is.  That will be $89 thank you.

It should have been wrapped in gold leaf!

The tool is not worth that,  so the Power Tool Shop still own that part, and unless something changes that’s the last Bosch tool I’ll own.

I did though manage to find a pair of oars at a deal that was not a lot more than the cost of enough high grade lumber to make a pair.  theyre heavy and a bit clumsy, the usual off the shelf ones, but with some effort with a sharp plane and spokeshave theyll be good.  

2.4 m oars. When buying like this I regard them as partly shaped blanks. I take care with the grain orientation of the shafts, and try to ensure that the pair are as evenly matched as possible although 8 footers are not commonly stocked now, most being bought for yacht tenders so are little 6 ft 6in ones, thats way too short for SEI.

Ill be running a "wot I did to these oar blanks" in a future blog, youll hardly recognise them when I finish with making shavings.

Time to go and paint the mast for SEI, she’s looking good.

John W

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