Play stopped rain !

Or something like that.

What’s happening -? end of summer 2023 .

Well, basically it’s raining and in fact it’s been raining here since we were on the road, coming back from Norfolk, a few weeks ago. To be honest that was as much rain as iv’e seen fall in such a short period – at least in the UK and the only greater rainstorms that iv’e been in have been a bruiser of a thunderstorm in south west France and a tropical storm once in the Caribbean sea. On this occasion we were also slightly lost in the outskirts of Exeter and we could see so little that we pulled over for a while……anyway.

While i’m here I feel that I should reiterate that I have not only stopped blogging full time and indeed mostly stopped writing but recent experiences suggest that not only have I ‘retired’ from sailing but I may have given up on my outdoors life completely as well. You might say ‘well in that case what’s this piece doing here ?’…….answer….I didn’t have much to do on a dull and wet Sunday afternoon and felt like doing some writing so…..

This isn’t really a blog any more so i’m not thinking and writing in blog mode so it’s more a catch up with what I have been doing (but mainly not doing) with the Pathfinder build and other projects. Most of September has been very wet and windy so in any dry-ish moments iv’e been outside doing the essential end of summer ground work and garden jobs. I spent several whole days grubbing out blackberry runners (again) and in so doing destroyed one pair of work gloves, my usual working shorts and this year’s wool sweater. When we went away for a short break in sunnier Norfolk I was still picking blackberry barbs out of my hands – like so many wood splinters. This week though I finally got around to some workshop time because that was the dryest place to be….and yes, it’s a complete mess in there once again.

In the workshop – the new bowsprit plus lots of shavings, blunt tools and disorganization.

So yes, that’s the first project under way (making a new prod), in fact iv’e just come back into the house after flipping it over and coating the underside with epoxy resin. Next job for me today is to hoover through the house, empty the woodburner of ash and then head out for coffee with Jax before she heads off to singlehandedly rescue the NHS tonight ; it really is in a mess but perhaps a busier mess than my small damp workshop.

A quick slow recap.

In my last two blog posts I talked about launching the Pathfinder and then having an unsuccsessfull first time out with it – after that experience I followed that up with a more speculative post about maybe going in a different direction with boats at the end of my sailing life. The potential project that I was talking about hasn’t exactly become a -set-aside/back burner job but our time in Norfolk did suggest a better approach with an even smaller boat. That whole idea is on the back burner now though as I have chosen instead to focus on completing the Pathfinder build even if I don’t do much with it.

As it stands (on it’s trailer, under the build shelter) it’s only a couple of days work away from going for a sailing sea trial – which was my plan for when I got the boat home from that bruising (literally) first trip. Once i’d done the clean up and sort out though I made the decision to devote the whole of September to the ground work here and to having an actual and mental break from the project. Also, rather than doing a quick turnaround and correction of immediate problems I decided to start instead on the longer term jobs such as re rigging the boat as a Yawl, building an electrical system and acquiring a motor. That mostly meant putting aside any thoughts of sailing this year but concentrating instead on new construction projects now and then delaying the re-launch until next spring.

Oh and….the last little kicking from my launch trip came when I was reorganizing our camp support crate before driving to Norfolk. There are a couple of pieces of essential kit that ‘float’ between my everyday rucksack, the boat and my camp crate ; one of those is a very powerful and expensive special forces style torch which cost an arm and several legs when I bought it and the other is my favorite small folding knife – a Fjallkniven U2 that usually serves as my dedicated boat knife. Well, I couldn’t find either torch or knife and the last place I remember having both of them was just before I fell off the boat and went into a muddy dock head first……I suspect I know where they are now !.

Where I am at right now is with the existing mast completely off the boat, the temporary sprit-boom made but not quite finished and a new bowsprit almost ready to fit. Given that I originally built the hull to accommodate a mizzen mast and made the boomkin quite a bit of the work towards converting from sloop to yawl is already done : yes though it does still mean that I have to make 2 new masts, an additional sprit boom and have made the new mainsail and mizzen.

Mast/s

While I made a reasonably competent job of building the existing mainmast in birdsmouth Douglas Fir it is a bit on the heavy side and while I could make a second one a bit lighter it wouldn’t be that much different if made in similar materials and technique. Instead of timber iv’e been trying to source a carbon fiber tube or a suitable section and weight of alloy tube. Thus far I haven’t been able to track down a 5 metre length of carbon fibre tube in the Uk but I have found a supplier of alloy tube at a reasonable price. To make either a carbon tube mast or alloy tube mast I would also have to make top and bottom plugs out of lathe turned timber….and I don’t own a lathe : in fact I haven’t used a wood lathe in the last 50 years. Rather than buying one I did get a suggestion of having someone else do the job, have looked and asked around but with no success so far. I think what I will do is buy a decent secondhand one as there are several available locally and then spend some time learning how to use one again.

What I do have in stock is a length of alloy tube which would do for the mizzen mast and once again just need to make the top and bottom plugs and fettle the mast holes in the aft deck and aft compartment to accept the tube. It did also occur to me that I could correct an error of omission at the same time and fit both a VHF wire and electrical cable into one or other of the masts at the same time.

The mizzen mast would just have to drop through the hole (covered) in the aft deck and then the similar hole (also covered) in the stern compartment – the cover plates are already off and iv’e had a first go at fitting the length of pvc tube which I used as a mast blank when I decked the hull last year.

Year 3 then….Autumn and Winter work.

I didn’t quite expect to be in this state and position at the end of my third year on the project but what it does mean is that iv’e already got an autumn and winter’s worth of work to do – all written up on the inside of the shed door ; my functional aide memoire. With making a new bowsprit, adding fittings such as the mainsheet bridle and sheet bearer blocks (above) i’m already well stuck in with my rebuild of the rig. Some time during the winter I know that I have to make a shelter/tent for the boat to make the camping experience a lot more bearable. With having the existing rig off and on again this month I also messed around with designing a basic tent but one which would either be rigged over the lowered mainmast (part of the reason to build a lighter rig) or built more like a tarp-tent and rigged between masts.

Where I planned to be right now was the larger project of rebuilding the workshop roof, part of the floor and reorganizing the inside space to give me better working room – that would need one new long bench, entail moving the drill press and building a new tool rack on the ‘high’ side of the workshop. That’s more likely now to be delayed until early summer next year, as when and if we get an extended dry spell. I really would like to be getting on with other important projects too, having been camping recently I still feel that I could do a better job just by designing and building my own tarp/shelter/tent and then I would really like to get on with my long delayed project of building an electric assist recumbent trike.

On hold for now but would still like to go over there and take a look-see.