I've got the galley water pumps and handles in position, although they'll be coming out again to formica the worktops and paint out the cupboards before their final installation. The water pumps are old pub beer pumps and are solid bronze and quite delightful - they came to me as fittings on Miss Molly I, and will be staying with me, if I have anything to do with it!

I've also made a start on the lazarette hatch frame and, as a little side project, have begun to make an iron frame to mount a Volvo Penta MD1 that I have had for a while (also a Miss Molly I relic). I've also managed get the bilge painting completed; so things are ticking along nicely...

Here's the latest vid

I've made a decent start on the galley worktops and cupboards. the hard-chined hull makes fitting pretty straightforward because it's straight lines in 2 direction at least.. A sliding bevel gives you the hull angle and this can be transferred to the piece of board easily to cut the fitting angle. I'm using CLT (cross-laminated timber) for the bulk of the construction, together with battens and cleats of doug fir, and wood-on-wood gluing using Titebond 3. Gluing to the hull is done with epoxy and it's all being sealed to the hull to give a thorough monocoque construction - the whole thing adding strength to the hull structure.

Here's the latest video;

To celebrate this years "thank you patrons" day today, I've put another montage together with clips from all of the videos from the last year. Enjoy and THANK YOU!!!

The weather's taken a turn for the colder, but fortunately I've managed to get the closing-in of the boat essentially finished and I can now start working on the interior - I've got a small ceramic heater that takes the chill off, making it ok to work and glue down below.

I'm now in the process of fitting the galley and all that entails. The galley cupboards and worktops in themselves are not particularly difficult, but a lot of thought and measuring is going in to getting the various, very simple, systems in place. The Dickinson Bristol diesel stove - the very make and model recommended in the plans - cannot be fitted as stipulated in those same plans. According to the stove specifications, it has to be fitted facing either port or starboard (so the diesel level control system functions in a rolling boat) whereas the plans show it fitted facing aft. As the hard-chined side of the hull slopes in a straight line, this means the stove needs to protrude further into the galley than I would have ideally liked! It'll be fine though - it just has to be that way!

I'm using softwood CLT for the galley cupboards and worktops - the worktops will be covered with Formica. After some research and thought, I decided to use the the CLT as it's locally grown and D3 glued (waterproof, but not for immersion). I considered using CLT bamboo, but in the end decided against it as it's much heavier and is sourced in, and hence shipped from, China.

I've also noticed that I've got a bit behind with posting videos here, so here is a catch-up post;