As Lou explained (as I sat in the land-rover feeling quite defeated) “It’s like when you built the racing bikes/cars – you can’t expect to show up at the circuit and have it all work perfectly the first time you race it. There is always going to be development work.”
…and I guess she is right!
This post firstly relates the trips we have made so far, and secondly attempts to provide a balanced view of the successes and failures to date – to help other builders.
Having craned the engine and boiler into the hull we have now settled the position of the key components and can start to deal with some of the remaining fitting out tasks.
We are still aiming for an April Launch, but in true project planning style we had not said which day in April, so we have a few days left. The following items have been addressed so far:
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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We have turned one eye to the business of the drive train and prop-shaft for Befur.
I have concluded that I am putting a CV joint in the drive train, to allow the engine to be mounted horizontally, and also going to use a toothed belt drive from the engine to the prop-shaft, so allow me to install the engine off-centre, and improve internal layout.
Well this months thanks go to Nigel Thompson from the SBA who noticed signs of wavering and procrastination in my questioning about the sequence of build operations, and stepped in to put me back on the right track….
To go back a bit; you might recall that the game plan is to clad the hull outside and in with epoxy/cloth skins. Also we need to add the “keel” (aka “deadwood”) to the bottom of the boat after cladding, and the question was do we clad the out side, then fit the keel/propshaft/rudder etc. then turn her over and clad the inside? or do we clad the outside, turn her over and clad the inside then turn her over and fit the keel and then turn her a third time or some other combination of things…. In the middle of this agonising it was suggested by others that the internal and external cladding need to be done in one season to stop the timber “shrinking away from the cladding” due to changes of humidity in the (half-clad) timber…. and then there is a land-rover chassis sitting waiting to be mated to my winter transport and then there are holidays and bike tours in France and then…… At this point the aforementioned Nigel stepped in and said “common lets get moving I’ll come next week and help with the cladding”. and so it was to be….. Continue reading
SY Befur 