KeithAug

All the deck stuff is wonderfully done Phil, very impressive.

Beautiful metalwork Mark.

Wonderful rigging John. Very admirable.

Good to see you back Nils and good to see progress on the light ship again.

Excellent work Keith, we need a picture of the fleet?

Simply splendid Paul.

They look fine to me Keith.

Beautiful set of flanges Mark.

Good tip - thank you Eberhard. Also thank you. Excellent work Phil.

Thank you for all there Christmas and New Year messages, much appreciated. Well the grandchildren are gone and the weather has turned very wintery. The workshop is currently at 5 deg C - 41 deg F so my time working is somewhat limited. I have however been progressing the aft guest cabin. I needed a couple more bedside lights. I also started gluing the mahogany doors to the various panelled walls, followed by door knobs, handles, lamps etc. I also made the large mirror ( currently protected by blue masking tape). With the panels completed I was able to glue them in place with PVA - using more Starbuck sticks and various clamps to hold them. The side panels for the bunks and the various door fronts, shelves etc, went in next. The step (bottom left in the next photo is my best guess at what this area looks like. As explained earlier I don't have any photo's of this location. Next a bit more carpeting. The floor has a slight step in it, presumably to accommodate the curvature of the hull or to trip up the mother in law. (see later comment). With everything in place I did a few shots with the phone camera (restricted by quite limited access). Once again I forgot to clean out the dust. The following it the best shot I could get of the portholes. I then glued in the external port holes (made earlier). Re the floor step. I once spent 2 weeks in the Caribbean on a Dufour charter yacht. I learned to hate it. One of its design innovations was to mount the hot water tank below the starboard bunk. This would have been fine in the arctic but in the Caribbean it rendered it totally unbearable. Unfortunately I drew the short straw and hence spent the fortnight sleeping on deck. This however wasn't its most wonderful design feature. The designer had managed to place a shallow step right across the middle of the cabin (presumably to gain a little addition head height). The step was perfectly positioned to catch the unwary crew member every time they either ascended or descended the steps to the deck. Everyone at some time ended up sprawled across the cabin floor or with their heads wedged between the ladder rung, both events being accompanied by choice expletives.

Happy new year to everyone.

Yes John - we spend all our spare time on the beach at this time of year - very bracing. Happy new year to you and all your countrymen. The kids have just watched the Harbour Bridge fireworks before being packed off to bed. So good of you all to arrange 2026 early to facilitate our child care arrangements. We still have 4 hours 15 minutes to go to 2026 so haven't even started on the booze yet.😀

Mark you do remarkably good metalwork with simple tools, very impressive.

Nice progress Keith. The rails are a little small to prod anyone in the eye.

Very nicely done.