As we move inexorably towards August I am feeling the pressure to finish Befur ready for the move to Cumbria!
We have ordered a trailer from Gecko Trailers in Cornwall, (who’s spelling is worse than mine)! that is due to arrive in 6 weeks, so I think it’s defining a definite end date 
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Just a quick note, the last week or so have been dedicated to the building of the cabin on Befur, and the first stages of internal fit-out.
This has involved the fitting of the cabin sides (as seen in the last post’s pictures), and the fitting of internal bulkheads, (e.g. the walls of the loo and heads for the bunks.) This has involved more “spilling” to get the shapes from the hull for cutting of the bulkheads (a remarkably accurate process) and fitting these too the hull using epoxy filets. Continue reading
I have returned to work on finishing and fitting out the hull, and in the process come to the conclusion that boat building using strip-plank/epoxy is mostly a process of sculpture using wood and epoxy as the constructional elements. I must confess that this approach really rewards the botcher, as there seems to be no need for the kind and quality of woodworking skills traditionally needed – in fact I think they may be a disadvantage. 🙂 Continue reading
Just a note to bring up to date the state of the fit-out and progress over the last month…
We have fitted:
This is a hotchpotch of notes on progress we have made in the last few weeks.
I am now focusing my attention on the internal fit-out. We need to get Befur in a state to move her on a trailer to our new home in Cumbria in August, this is adding some needed pressure, to ensure we get everything done in time… Continue reading
The current process is trying to finalise the major items in the fit-out of the boat, so that I can install the major structural elements for the cabin and mast. This is a bit of a “round in circles” process, You imagine how it will be, draw it out, see it doesn’t fit, imagine it again etc. Clearly some items will fall out later in the process, but we do need to get the mast, boiler, engine in the right place and make sure that one is not sharing the loo (head) with the other members of the crew or a few hundredweight of hot steel! Continue reading
The last few weeks have been devoted to progressing the Landrover rebuild to provide a comfortable and reliable tow vehicle, vast amounts of foam insulation, lead-loaded sound deadening and carpet and new LED lights might make it quieter, but I suspect may have more effect on the fuel consumption! But with some of the new doors fitted onto the new chassis it’s starting to look like we might get there! Personally, I rather like the UN-style paint job (the doors came from different places and the new bulkhead was second hand) with a combination of white and black doors metallic blue bulkhead and the original (if faded) blue and white Landy paint job. As an alternate I fancy respraying the whole thing in “ASBO” orange, but there are descenting voices in the camp! Continue reading
Well, yesterday was a momentous day! As noted in the previous post, I was totally ready to move on and stop filling/preparing the hull and see the inside!
More assistance from Nigel Thomson from the SBA produced an excellent result.
We propped the workshop roof with some Acroprops, fitted up a selection of chain hoists (thank you Graham for loaning yours) and supported the boat in slings. We then got inside and removed a remarkable quantity of ironmongery and stripped out all the molds…. Thank you Nigel for doing the majority of this work! Continue reading
Well actually this short post just concerns itself with filling… Having sanded off the epoxy cladding, the next step was to fill it to provide a flat surface for painting. I was advised to use Nautix Blue Epoxy filler, which I obtained from MarineWare in Fareham. This is quite remarkable stuff – it’s expensive at ÂŁ100 for 10litres, but it is VERY fine, a joy to apply and very economic. In fact I used less than 10 litres to process the entire boat. I owe a deal of thanks to Tommy Robinson an old friend and professional decorator for showing me how to apply the filler – the finish we achieved before sanding was quite amazing… Continue reading
Well it’s another month down the road and the deadwood/keel is done – to be fair to Selway Fisher most of my troubles with this are entirely self inflicted, and by comparison to some other designs, Paul’s are much simpler and well thought out for the beginner (and in fact the first sentence of the instructions for the Golden Bay say that it’s not designed for the first time builder, so the fact I am almost ready to turn over the hull is a tribute to his design!).
