Episode 12 of the video series is out! In this one, I assemble the frame at station 4 :-)

I guess that's now officially winter (in my book at least!). Only really a dusting of snow, but snow - the first of the season. Brrrrrrrrrrr.

The station 4 frame is basically finished - it's all there - shaped, filled and sanded. The only issue is that, with the temperatures as they are at the moment, the epoxy filler that I put on on Sunday still hasn't cured properly. This is the thing that worries me most - the thing that really could restrict progress. If it's too cold for epoxy to cure, there's an issue. I can stand the temperatures, but epoxy can't. So far the Semparoc glue I use has cured ok - according to the data sheet, it also has a minimum working temp of 5 Celsius. We'll see how it goes...

Episode 11 is out now. Stations 3 and 4 and my attempts to beat the winter chill.

The station 4 frame is basically finished now - it just needs a quick sand up. I've invested in a workshop heater to keep the chilly temperatures at bay. So far, so good.... Snow forecast next week....

Bit of a long haul, that one, but the station 3 bulkhead is now finished and standing in the stack of completed sections. I've made a start on the station 4 frame, which is a nice easy frame and should, with any luck, be completed before the end of November, keeping me on target for my 2 stations-a-month goal. If the weather stays reasonable, I might even get ahead of target in December coz I have a bit of holiday around the festive season. We'll see :-)

I'm in the process of buying a new secondhand engine for the new boat. It's a Volvo Penta M2010D - a 10HP, single cylinder diesel with saildrive, control panel, wiring and engine/saildrive mount.

The 10HP gives me the old standard of approx 2HP per ton of displacement and should be plenty for my needs. My old boat, Miss Molly I, had roughly double the displacement and a 7HP Volvo Penta diesel, and that was enough to push her along nicely in most conditions (heading into largish Pacific waves slowed her down quite a lot, but we still made headway). 10 HP with the new boat should be ample.

Newer engines come fitted with an alternator for battery charging as standard, and that'll be quite an advantage. The old Volvo Penta MD1B on Miss Molly I had a combined starter/dynamo, which did indeed function to charge the batteries, but an alternator will do the job more effectively - I also intend to fit solar panels, so should be able to have a larger service battery, giving longer between-charging times.

I'll keep you posted on further engine developments.

Busy weekend! Amongst a few other things, I managed to sand up the mahogany trim around the hatch opening on the station 3 bulkhead and to glass and epoxy both sides completely. It's now basically finally finished except that it needs a quick final clean up. Despite temperatures not going above 6 Celsius, the epoxy has cured nicely and it's all looking good.

As the title suggests, the station 3 bulkhead is now finished in terms of the woodwork construction (well, 2 tiny pieces of trim are missing - top left and right of opening, under the fore hatch beam) and 1 panel is already covered with glass and epoxy. With any luck the piece should be finished completely this weekend :-)

They're coming thick and fast at the mo, might be a bit of a break after this one though! Anyhow, episode 10 of my boat-building vlog series is out now. Check it out!!!

Check out this cool project that's going on right now in Kenya

http://www.theflipflopi.com/the-flipflopi-dhow/

This isn't nice, but please watch it anyway!!

And hot on the heels of the boat show episode comes EP09. In this episode, we return to boat building and the station 3 bulkhead, which is quite an involved piece.

The latest episode is out today. This one is a little different as it's all about our day out at the Hamburg boat show. There were several ply and epoxy boats on show, along with a few interesting traditional boats. One thing that really struck me was the number of fibreglass boats that had hard chined hulls. I imagine this is primarily to gain room in the interior - I'm sure it's not for structural reasons. They generally had wide, flat bottoms and nearly vertical hull sides. Looks like my Benford dory will be quite fashionable!! :-)

Anyhow, the video can be viewed here;

There's another report on the BBC about plastic in our oceans - a video, and from there you can link to a series of videos about the plastic situation in our oceans. Well worth viewing! Start here;

http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-41866046/the

There was no boat-building progress this weekend - we went to Yorkshire to visit Elizabeth who's working there. Flew  in to Manchester, rented a car and drove across the Pennines to her place. Beautiful country. After a tour of her workplace, we went for a drive to the east coast, where we ended up in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire and had a delightful walk along the beach there. The tide was coming in, but the sea was calm and peaceful. Very nice :-)

I also took the opportunity during the inevitable waiting times that travelling involves to reread 'Sailing Back In Time' (see Resources page).  I love that book - delightful and inspiring!

The station 2 frame is now finished and has joined the slowly growing pile of finished pieces. I'm currently working on the station 3 bulkhead. Various battens have been glued to it and the deck beam is also in clamps and gluing. I also lofted the floor beams in the entire boat, which pointed out a minor error I've made, in that the bottom of the station 3 bulkhead should only have a batten and not a floor beam. I'll have to run a saw through the 9cm beam that is currently glued to the bulkhead and reduce its dimensions somewhat. Not a major issue.