Plywood ahoy!

Having worked out the various sizes of blanks needed I set about trying to minimise the amount of ply used. As can be seen below, it worked out quite well but I guess I was lucky. In the distant past I worked in a sheet metalworks and programmed a CNC Turret Press. One of the tasks that was important was to be able to lay out the various parts in the most efficient way. More recently clever Computer Aided Design systems have automated this process so like many other skills, it is not being learnt any more.

An almost perfect layout - very lucky

The simple rules when cutting materials is measure three times cut once. This was brought home to me today while I was marking up the 12mm marine ply for the bulkheads, rudder and stock. Having marked up the grid for the stock and sketched the outline I then moved on to the rudder. I again marked out the grid and began to pencil in the outline, taking a couple of measurements from the stock blank. This was where it all started to go wrong, I found the rudder ended up 10cm short and couldn't work out why. Then I realised the measurement I took from the stock blank was wrong so almost every line I had made on both blanks was incorrect.

So it was literally back to the drawing board. I'm glad to say the second effort was much more successful and I'm glad I hadn't cut anything!

Stock outline drawn - correct this time!

One of the delights of the Potters is the sheerline, I suppose it could be described as a cheeky curve. I am sure that the curve of the stock was designed to complement that and help give the little boats such character. It would have been simpler for me to use straight lines but will look so much better per the original.

I drew up the rudder to be roughly the right size and shape but it is a little different from the original which has a slight point at the tip. I drew mine a little more rounded but I'm sure it will work fine - I just preferred the shape. It has been suggested that I make this out of two thicknesses of 12mm ply but that seems a little thick to me so I'm going to risk a single thickness and see how it works. I'm intending to put the stock together with screws so it can be taken apart at a later date for wood treatment on the inside surfaces. Therefore if I need to have a sturdier rudder I'll be able to thicken up the centre of the stock as well without having to completely remake it.

Rudder outline - one 12mm thickness should be ok (I hope!)

So jigsaw in hand I started to cut the rudder blank and within five seconds managed to break the blade. First problem was that I didn't have any spare blades so a quick trip to the local store was made. Second problem was that I couldn't remove the old blade. 

I had borrowed the saw from work and it has seen a lot of use over the years. A quick disassembly showed it was missing a couple of parts critical to removing the blade and no amount of "adjustment" (for which read brute force and ignorance) would release the blade. I'll have to wait for tomorrow to talk with the guy who normally uses it - he must have a knack! However it looks like I'll have to invest in a new saw - more unplanned expense, though I justify the expense as an investment towards my retirement career - just don't tell SWMBO - LOL!

Andrew Simpson

No matter what form of boating you happen to be involved in and no matter how much care and attention is given to safety there is always risk. This has been brought home today with the loss of Andrew Simpson while training with Artemis for the America's Cup. This is the pinnacle of competitive sailing, a little like F1 is to cars, with huge resources and attention to detail, but it is still dangerous and shows what can happen when any of us set sail.

My thoughts go out to Andrew's family and his teammates.

Wivenhoe

One of the joys of the East coast of England is its numerous rivers and estuaries and the villages and towns that sit on them. One of these is Wivenhoe on the river Colne and has some beautiful old buildings while the local authority has demanded that any new housing is built in the local vernacular style. While on the surface this is attractive there is a feeling of pastiche in some parts of the town close to the river, though it is certainly better than what might have happened.

Wivenhoe with the modern vernacular in the distance

There is a lovely pub on the riverside, the Rose and Crown, where I had a very nice pint of Doombar this afternoon. One of its delights is the fact that there are some beautiful old yachts sitting on the mud banks outside. Here are a couple of them to drool over.

A very pretty clinker yacht though I suspect the hull is GRP

No comment needed!

Not so pretty but for sale - might make a great boat for someone

Finally the strangest place to put a chimney!

Slow Going - too many interests!

The weather has, by and large, been fantastic this last week but unfortunately the combination of work, athletics, decorating and grandchildren has not allowed me to progress on the Potter as I had planned. However I managed to squeeze a couple of hours on Saturday to tidy a couple of areas up and measure the rear bulkhead which is completely missing. It would have been helpful to have an accurate drawing but I guess the manufacturing plans have all been lost to the mists of time.

I also have to find a way of getting at the bulkhead that is at the rear of the cabin, under the cockpit. It looks in poor shape, like all the other wood has been, but I'm not sure how best to reach it. The area under the rear of the cockpit, forward of the rear locker, is stuffed full of polystyrene foam which is jammed tight, but I think I have to remove it to be able to inspect the bulkhead. If I have to replace that as well that is going to be a tough job without taking the top off, we will just have to see. Of course to do this job properly I should remove the upper moulding but that is a major step I don't want to do.

At all three corners the join between the hull and deck has been covered up by a horrible grey rubber pipe. This might have limited the damage that could be done when hitting hard objects, like other boats, but looked terrible. That has all been removed and will be replaced by pieces of ply cut to shape and rounded to match the rubbing strip, which incidentally also needs replacing but will have to wait until the more major challenges have been completed.

So I now have a number of parts drawn up to cut from the ply that arrived this week. It was delivered by Travis Perkins who keep 12 and 18mm thick marine ply in stock. The quality looks to be very good and it is properly stamped. Unfortunately they don't keep thinner material so anyone planning to build a hull will have to look elsewhere. I hope to be able to cut the pieces up today or tomorrow for the two bulkheads I have measured, the rudder and stock, the mast step and supporting pad and the rear corner pieces. Then there will be a lot of planing and sanding to shape – oh joy!

I received a whole bunch of pictures this week through the wonders of Dropbox from Harry Gordon in California. Some of them are already on the WWPUK Group site but I'll work through the others to see what are worth including. There are some old catalogues and instructions which may be worth reproducing – I'll see what scanning and OCR can produce.

It's also great to follow Bill Serjeant and Sandpiper on their travels round the coast from Burnham. He's probably sailing from Dover today round towards Folkstone so good luck, but it's a wonderful day – not sure of the wind though. The next few stretches are pretty exposed so hope the weather holds for him. Follow his exploits on http://bills-log.blogspot.co.uk/.

Finally I had a very privileged day yesterday celebrating a friends birthday. He had hired a box at Lords to watch Middlesex play Glamorgan in a 40 over match. I've always enjoyed watching cricket on TV from time to time but it is only when you see it live that you realise how talented these guys are. The speed of bowling is scary and how the batsmen see the ball in time to hit it where they intended is remarkable.

A fantastic view

We had a wonderful time even if Middlesex did lose, drank far too much wine and ate our fill of wonderful food. The ground was less than ¼ full and from what I understand kids have free entry – compared to some other sports it is a great value day out.

The venerable old and eccentric MCC Pavillion full of venerable old and eccentric MCC members

We were even allowed on the hallowed turf

Which reminds me of an old apocryphal story that we told to one of our party who happened to be from across the Atlantic. 

A bus load of American tourists were visiting Oxford and viewing Merton College. Like most old Oxbridge colleges the Quadrangle has a wonderful lawn and one of the party commented how beautiful and flat it was to the Porter. "How do you manage to make the lawn so gorgeous?" asked the awestruck visitor. "Well," answered the Porter "we mow and roll the grass every single day and after six hundred years it looks like this!".

Isn't history a wonderful thing.

Rudders and Finns

At least the weather has been half decent this weekend which has allowed me to scratch the surface of the project. However I have also had to score some brownie points by doing some decorating and mowing the lawn - which had suddenly grown by about six inches. As all in the UK will know, spring is at least a month late this year and all the plant activity seems to be being concentrated. The picture in the last post showed a Japanese Magnolia and already the petals are turning brown and falling off. Here is a cherry tree taken three days ago and most of the blossom is gone already.

Beautiful but short lived

Most importantly I managed to clear most of the rust off the centreboard and was delighted to see that while there was a lot of corrosion there is still enough good steel. So a bit of rust treatment and suitably tough paint and I should have a board that will last at least a few years. I will need to replace the lifting ropes as they have seen better days but that shouldn't be too much of a problem and the box top, while functional, could do with remaking – easier to do while it's off anyway.

The other couple of tasks that have been completed (nearly!) is the old cross member has been removed and the grotty plastic tubing that had been put round the bow has been stripped off. Both areas need a little cleaning up now but the worst has been done. The plywood should arrive tomorrow so I hope to be able to cut out the cross member ready for mounting and I'll give it a coat of epoxy as that was delivered this morning. It's great to think that new parts are going on to the boat rather than old stuff coming off, though there's still more of that to do as well.

One other task I have managed is to roughly draw up the rudder and stock to scale and put a grid against the drawing. I'll try to tidy that up and put it on the WWPUK group files site. I'm confident I have the stock design (plan only) about right but the blade needs a little more work. As the transom comes down at a reverse angle the front edge of the rudder needs to be at worst vertical and at the moment it's following the line of the transom which won't work too well. Should have that done today but having said that my Dad has offered me an old Finn rudder which I may be able to make work though I suspect it will need some 'adjustment'. At least its basic shape is about right and I can dream my name's Ainslie but I suspect that pumping a Potter to windward in a Force 3 – 4 is probably missing the point of the boat!

Finn sailors are of course a special breed – I recall a story about Brian Saffrey Cooper, who sailed a Finn at the Tokyo Olympics, describing a hurricane as being “Top end of 4”. The boat certainly seems to be a training ground for some of the best racers around, take a look at the hall of fame – http://www.finnclass.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=14.

Spring has sprung

Having bought a new tarpaulin to cover the boat and wrapped up to keep her dry I realised this morning, after the rain had been and gone, that I should have set up the mast as a ridge pole. There was a large pool in the tarp where the cockpit is – it was obvious if I'd bothered to think about it. As Homer Simpson says Doh!!!

Still at least the weather has finally improved – one week of warmer temperatures and nature is up and running. The trees have suddenly started to look greener, the cherry blossom is out and the Tulip Magnolia trees are in full bloom.

Spring has AT LAST sprung

Like most working folk the time available for doing 'projects' is somewhat limited, particularly when there are lots of other things on as well. So I have been spending the odd moments (mostly at 3 in the morning – it must be an age thing!) thinking through all the jobs that have to be done to be able to put the little Potter back in the water and make her look presentable. It's a scary list taken as a whole but hopefully by breaking it down into small tasks I can make progress – as I said in an earlier post, eating an elephant in slices.

I thought it might be interesting to put some of these onto the blog if for no other reason it will provide me with more motivation to complete them so I don't look like a complete ….. (fill the blank with your own appropriate word). I've separated them into must do and nice to do tasks to help prioritise them, though I may be tempted to do some of the latter before the former to keep my interest high.

Key tasks:

• Replace rotten cross member and glass to centreboard case
• Strengthen centreboard bolt mounting and put in bolt
• Clean and paint centreboard or replace if too corroded
• Clean and paint interior
• Create bulkhead at front of rear locker
• Make rudder and tiller
• Build tabernacle and mounts
• Make pads for shroud fixings and refit (maybe renew with good bottle screws)
• Replace ring fixing at the bow * (see below)
• Sort out rigging
• Make woodwork for cabin interior
• Connect cockpit drain to transom drain
• etc. etc. etc.!

Pretty stuff!

• Grind out all old filler and crazed gelcoat
• Strengthen with glass (where needed) and refill topsides (hull seems OK)
• Sand and prepare for paint
• Paint topsides (I guess this is best done before putting any fittings back which may change the priorities)
• etc. etc. etc.!

And I still have to check if the sails fit!

*One thing I am pondering (among many) is that the ring that is mounted on the bow for attaching a winch is loose. I can't access the back of it as that's within the bow buoyancy tank. I suppose I could just fill around it with epoxy putty and hope it holds but that doesn't seem very satisfactory. So what I think I'm going to do is cut a hole into the tank to give me access (and allow me to see if there are any horrors in there!) and fix it properly. Then I'll seal the hole with a removable inspection hatch. Having looked there are hatches available up to about 9” in diameter so that should do the job and maybe provide somewhere to put things out of the way.

Right - off to buy my plywood!

So I've ordered a sheet of 12mm marine ply for all the structural and exposed stuff and a sheet of 6mm WBP for everything else - should be delivered on Tuesday. Hopefully that will do the job! I've also orded a West GRP repair kit to get me started and some extra tape which I know I'll need for bonding in the cross member. That should give me enough to learn what works best for the repairs before I spend any more and waste it.

Thinking about the rudder assembly, I'm hoping that I can use the ply to build that. I may have to epoxy coat it but that shouldn't be too difficult and I'd quite like to see the lines of the laminates come through where the rudder is faired off. Mind you that will take some doing to make it look good - might end up with paint on it!

London Marathon

Once every year, 35 - 40,000 hardened souls make their way to Blackheath Green in South East London at the start of a 26 1/4 mile adventure. Some will have completed it many times while for others it is a trip into the unknown. Nearly as many people volunteer to help out, at the registration and exhibition beforehand or at the event itself, handing out water around the course, providing marshalling and first aid services or in my case making sure the runners' bags that were left at the start are returned to their rightful owners.

The event is massive and hugely well organised, being part of it is greatly rewarding and a huge privilege  especially having run it some years ago. It meant an early start this morning to catch the coach, dropping off the club members who were running at Blackheath before making our way to the Mall. That gave us time for breakfast at a certain well known sandwich outlet, overlooking a sun drenched Trafalgar Square before making our way through security, heightened this year for obvious reasons, to our station for the day.

It really is a beautiful space early in the morning on a sunny day

Soon to be turned into a hotel

 The calm before the storm

Approximately 30,000 kit bags

 But what a beautiful day

Blessed by royalty - he's quite a character

The agony....

... and the ecstasy 

or maybe the sublime and ridiculous - must have chafed!

and some inspiring characters!

The crowds afterwards were amazing - lots of very pleased runners and over-attentive family and friends. Thousands running for charity - hope the money is used wisely

So after a long day, there were thousands of very happy runners and a hugely successful event. 

The effort needed to train properly to run a marathon takes many months of hard work and dedication - a little like restoring a Potter back to good condition. This week I am hoping to work on the centreboard to try and avoid having to replace it and make the cross brace to glass into the hull. I'm hoping to buy the marine ply today so I'll report on how good the Travis Perkins supplied product looks to be.