Back to work on DY 171

Im still here, and have not completely dropped of the face of the planet.


Although I have been away since the end of December work has slowly continued on the Yawl. I have the next month to get the boat back on the water and in a sailable state.


The plan is to rig her with Selden masts, booms and fittings ordered from Allspars in Plymouth.  The masts should be ready in the next three weeks, at which time we will fit her out. All rigging above the deck has been ordered, including a fly away jib stick system. I am however flicking through the Selden Marlow and Spinlock brochures trying to list all the parts that i will need for the various systems on deck. Its hard to keep to the KISS (keep it simple stupid) system of procurement when you have soo many options. 


As a compromise and to minimise costs, we have purchased a lifting outboard bracket, as opposed to the expense of getting a cut out on the transom (this would have taken a large chunk out of the budget, for little gain). The old bracket was in such a poor state it could not be resurrected.


Work on the centre-plate has been slow, but it is finally ready to be placed back into the yawl today.  In January the plate was lifted out of the boat at Streethay Wharf (a local canal boat yard near my parents in the west-midlands) and has been away to be shot blasted and sealed. A new slot gasket has been made and is being fitted as I write this post. In fact I'm giving fitting advice over the phone to the yard as I am currently in Topsham.


In two weeks the yawl will need to move from the West-midalnds to Plymouth then Topsham. If you have read the previous post about the journey from Pool up to my fathers house you can understand why we will be conducting a thorough inspection of the trailer and replacing the other wheel bearing as a precaution.


One other major task that needs to be completed is the removal of foam from the buoyancy tanks, for this job both my father and I have three days set aside.  In order to remove the foam we will be adding two new hatches on each tank as well as the hole we have cut in each tank under the centre thwart (this will be re-sealed on completion).  The hatches will provide a useful water proof stowage as well as acting as access to the buoyancy bags we intend to fit as a safety precaution.


The wood work is coming on well, the thwart and centreboard case capping have been completely stripped of the old varnish sanded and are now ready for us to seal. These will be placed back on the boat during the fit out proces in Plymouth as we need to measure distances for control lines and the main sheet ratchet and swivel cleat.


Well thats enough to be getting on with for now,
I'll post my progress soon,


Rich