Short Friday’s.

Pathfinder build, short progress report, end of week 2 of year 3.

Short Friday’s – end of week progress a day ahead of schedule.

I thought I would post today because iv’e already got as far as I can with the work this week, it’s a nice clear day compared to the clag-fest yesterday so i’m going to head out on the trail as soon as iv’e opened the workshop for some air.

Mostly it’s been a week of heavy and frustrating admin and very little about putting detail on the Pathfinder : most of the admin this week has been about trying to find a local traditional sign writer who would be prepared to come around and paint the name on the boat in a classic style. I was almost at the point of either giving up and going for vinyl or waiting until the boat was on it’s trailer and taking down to Falmouth where there do seem to sign writers used to working with boats. Then….one local contact came good so I set the back of the boat cover up as a tent, put the space heater in there and left our man to it while I spent a couple of hours tidying up.

No to spin out an overly long tale but iv’e been chasing leads on this for 2 weeks – I kept getting suggestions for people that could do vinyl lettering and/or snazzy graphics where all I wanted was something like a pub sign-writer with a choice of letter fonts that he could do.

Job done…..main post on Monday.

The other admin has been a lot more simple in that of getting yet another order of fasteners to finish the bilge pump job with, some Forstner bits to prepare the oar socket risers with and then a conversation backwards and forwards with a traditional rigging company over on the east coast. I think I can now successfully order the 4 pieces of rigging – having once upon a time been a rigger myself iv’e made lots of simple stays and shrouds so I was tempted to just buy a cheap swaging press, wire and ferrules but to be honest it still didn’t make financial sense because iv’e only got 4 pieces to make.

Practical jobs this week then….spent a couple of hours sorting and tidying in the workshop while occasionally filming the name job being done. Then ; iv’e made a sculling notch to be transom mounted and got 2 pairs of smart (read expensive) Bronze oar sockets to mount in the oar risers. My plan now is to have a long riser block each side of the cockpit (as per photos) which will allow for a forward facing standing rowing position and one sat on the center compartment lid.

What else ? the whole boat was ‘boatyard dirty’ because my old camping tarps have slowly been shedding dirt and dust all over the paintwork so I gave the whole boat a wipe out and a brand spanking new cover. My 2 old boat covers ; one large camping tarp and one builders tarp, have done stirling service for the last 2 years but they were both shot – my old large camping tarp formed the kitchen area for years worth of camps….being poly-cotton and something like 20 years old the fabric was at the end of it’s useful life though.

Anyway…..that’s also the first time that the boat has had a wet wipe out so I also got to test the bilge pump after chucking a couple of buckets of soapy water in there.

I’m going to post my written blog about the name and the short video that I made alongside it on Monday next : for now though something i’d like visitors to know is that I also have a video channel with the same name and that I intend to embed a video with each post. Today’s clip is a recent one in which I talk about the Pathfinder’s anchoring set up.

Best wishes everyone.