The station 6 bulkhead is glassed both sides now. Just needs a little bit of filler here and there and that's that for that. I had to have a bit of a rethink on it about half way through as I realised I needed to leave a bit more room around the main mast. But I think all's well now!

Here's a couple of photos - one of station 6 before glassing and one of the engine.

The crew of SV Tapatya wish you all the very best this festive season. Let's hope that 2018 is a year of love and peace, along with some successful boat building progress and some sailing fun!

Here's episode 16 of our vlog. I hope you enjoy!

The station 6 bulkhead is progressing well. The ply panels are cut and fixed to the floor beam. The side battens and deck beam are in place and I've started making the post that goes up the galley side of the bulkhead. I'm using recycled mahogany for that and it's looking good so far :-)

Like many people, I have 2 weeks holiday coming up over the festive season and the weather forecast is looking good in terms of expected temperatures. Hopefully, I'll be able to get station 6 finished soon and then get on to the station 7 frame and station 8 frame/bulkhead. I'll keep you informed!

Photos soon.

This blog may give the impression that this boat-building project is an entirely linear thing - although, I guess my purchasing of an engine at this stage of the build might seem a little wacky :-) However, in terms of thoughts and research, it is anything but linear.

A project like this really takes you over. I often wake up in the middle of the night thinking about some aspect of the build - usually something in the future. For example, last night I woke up thinking about the limber holes in the frames in the bilge; other nights it's some other tricky part of the build.

I've also spent quite a bit of time researching things like new VHF radios with GPS and AIS capabilities. I've also recently acquired an iPad and have installed the iNavX software and all of the freely available electronic charts on it and have looked in to how to hook it up to a GPS/AIS receiver etc. There are all sorts of bits and bobs to think about, to research, to work out how they work. It's a full on thing!

Episode 15 of my boat-building video series is out now :-)

Station 6 is under construction now. This is the main mid-ships bulkhead that divides the saloon area from the galley and head. The deck beam is gluing up in the other shed, so progress is good so far :-)

The station 5 frame is now finished and standing in the growing stack of finished sections. It looks basically the same as station 4 except that its a bit bigger, so I'll spare you the photo. I've also lofted station 6 and will be putting saw to wood for that this weekend.

Episode 14 of my video series about the building of sv Tapatya is out now. Check it out!!!

Station 5 is now sanded and filled and the really good news is that, despite temperatures only briefly touching 4 degrees, the epoxy cured. Just needs a final sand up and that's another station finished :-).

Station 6 starting soon. I'm looking forward to that because it's a bulkhead which divides the settes and nav table from the head on one side and the settees and galley on the other, with a walk-through opening in the middle and a hard wood post on the galley side. Should be fun!

The new second-hand engine arrived yesterday :-) It's a Volvo Penta MD2010 - a twin cylinder, 10HP marine diesel engine. This one has come with a saildrive, wiring loom, control panel and cables and the engine mountings and mounting bed. It all looks very good.

I've also got as far as gluing up the station 5 frame, so things are moving along nicely :-D

Photos soon!!

The deliverers tried to deliver my new second-hand engine yesterday. Unfortunately, there was no one home. As is pretty normal these days, they left a card with a website address where I could arrange an appointment for a new delivery. I've done that and, if all goes well, it should be delivered on Wednesday. I'm not sure how they intend to unload it - it must weigh 120kg or so, and we'll see how I manage to transport it to the boat shed. Should be interesting!

And now.... Episode 13 is out. In this video, I complete the station 4 frame...