Geam

Took some "Colin Archer-by-night" photos on Wednesday evening, and lauched her yesterday, Thursday.  Sailed very well indeed. I was actually very surprised. The interior lighting and nav-lights look more impressive in real life than in the photos. 

 There are one or two small items to be added before she's 100% finished. The above mentioned 1mm dia. bolts are to be fitted to the dead-eyes. New name-transfers are in the post from Billing Boats, Denmark.  The original ones are so old, they are yellow around the edges and they also self-distruct when dipped in water!

I have sourced some 1mm brass bolts and nuts to replace the 1mm brass rod which (almost) joins the lugs of the dead-eye straps. I know this looks bad, but the wire was all I had at the time. The brass bolts should make it look better and provide a better engineering solution. 

George

A bit delayed as usual due to non-hobby related matters but have hoisted yet another sail and threaded a few dead-eyes for the main mast shrouds. The flying headsail and mizzen shrouds are on the list for this weekend as are 'ratlines' on the starboard shrouds. 

Nav-light boxes have to be lashed to the shrouds too.

I wish a good weekend to all.

George

A boatspeed indicator is fitted to the aft companionway -as on the present fullsize version. 

View from the helm shows the deck becoming cluttered with sheets and halyard ends. It will take a while to get all the 'ropework' properly stowed. 

This weekend should see all the sails attached and hoisted. Then the standing rigging/shrouds etc. will be on the list for next week. 

I'm hoping for a launch day sometime in August. 

George

Many detail items completed recently, not quite certain which photos are of interest to others, but rigging and sails are being fitted all over the place!  Mizzen mast and sail more or less complete now. Logo painted onto the mainsail and sail fitted to the mast. Topsail 'sewn' onto the spire and spire hoisted. The inner forestay is attached from mast to stemhead with a brass bottlescrew. 

George

Started work on attaching sails and rigging. Takes some focus to work out the routing of all the 'rope'. Almost finished attaching the mizzen sail. Some rigging fitted to the main mast too. Some mast photos ended up sideways!

George

Sail-sewing session now completed. Not a perfect result, but looks good from 1 metre away! Didn't always have full control of the compass heading of the sewing-machine needle you understand🥴

George

I've been given an intensive sewing course by the Admiralty. Started on the sails last tuesday. Had a delay due to a lever failure on the side of the sewing machine. Took all day thursday to fix it with epoxy, aluminium strip and a bolt! Mizzen sail has been  produced and almost finished the mainsail. Some of the stitching is a bit below standard but looks OK from 1 metre away!  Mizzen is much smaller than the mainsail as -shown in the photo,

George

Floatation tests show -as expected-that the interior detail has increased displacement! The antifouling line will have to be rasied about 1 cm. Ran the motor and sailed around the pool a few times.

Later inspection showed a few drops of water in the aft bilge. Propshaft has been withdrawn and re-greased thoroughly to try to seal it better. 

Bowsprit now added as well as many small detail items.

George

Floor-laying thing went very well. Got rid off 2 kg off ugly fatt too!  Need to dump 5-6 kg more, but I'm not going to do it in the floor laying business.

Not easy to get back into the swing of yacht building again, but starting on some small jobs like fitting the steering well so that it can be removed for access to the propshaft and servos below deck.

The smaller deck hatches will be held down by brass-painted 6.5mm screws and washers. The main hatch will be held by Caldercraft/Krick 'hatch-latches. 

A lot of small jobs to do on deck fittings for the sheets and standing rigging. Also dozens of blocks to be assembled with eyes and straps.

Not quite onto a good build rhythm yet.  The coming summer weather will also delay 'play'.

George

Yesterday it looked like my wife had bought me a giant, ready stained, Colin Archer kit.  She said it was a kit. A kit of hundreds of identical planks which, when fitted together properly would make 76 square metres of wood flooring😬

There will be some delays in model boatbuilding during the next few weeks. Luckily, all hammering, drilling and swearing has to stop by 1700 each week day or the sake of the neighbours. So some assembly of blocks and shackles can take place in the evenings!

George

Assembled the line gun. Shoots a line over to a vessel needing a tow -for example. It's supposed to be black, but as with the windlass, I want some shiny, brass contrast on deck.

George

Assembled the anchor this evening. The hardwood spheres on the ends of the stock are marked as 6mm in the parts list. The ones in my kit were only 5mm part nr F347.

When I tried  to drill out the hole to fit the diameter of the stock....it split. I thought they looked a bit small anyway, so out I went to the local sewing centre and bought some 8mm hardwood spheres. The smallest packet they had contained 140 spheres 🥴.

So now I can make 69 more stock anchors! Lucky boy🙂.  I can use some of them as freight on the N-scale Chistmas train set.😬 

Just thought I would share this useless piece of info'.

George