2008 building logs

December 2008 Cabin roof on boat.

How exciting. This month could be one of the most exciting in the build. The roof should go onto the boat. Once on the boat the only other panels left will be the cabin wrap around sides and front. These are pre made and just need kerfing to be shaped and glued on. Once the top is in the exact position there will be a top and bottom edge for the wrap around to glue to so all going well these may also go on this month meaning that the boat is at its final shape with only the rear steps and duckboard to finish the outside shape. After that it is internal fit out and making parts like rudders, oh and fairing!

December 1 Pureseal 2 years.

It is now 2 years since I first put the current pureseal sample in the water. For those that have recently joined Pureseal is a new kind of antifoul more like a clear silicon paint with no metal in it that inhibits growth because it is slippery rather than because the grow is repulsed by the surface. The first sample was a dismal failure which after just 9 months in the water had more growth on it than the pier pylons and the growth was sharp and immovable. This first sample cruelled Pure seal's reputation worldwide in fact I think the original company had to close. Someone else took over the company, revised the formula and I decided to give it another try. This second sample works. After 2 years in the water there is no doubt about it, it is not only still working, but somehow the sample is cleaner now straight out of the water than it has ever been. There has been some storm activity here recently and perhaps the rough conditions and water flowing past the sample have resulted in the slime (algal) growth that I usually get was cleaned off naturally. Perhaps this is indicative of what a moving hull would be like and that motion (as the makers claim) really does aid cleaning of the hulls. If you want to check it out my various results for yourself go to the building logs and open the months of the season over the last 2 years (Dec, March, June, Sept) and see the progress of the test. I think by any measure 2 years in the water and the surface as clean as the first day has to be called a success.

However, I have just 2 reservations about it. I would like 3 years to be absolutely convinced so I will continue to monitor it for another year before making my final decision about whether to put it on my hulls, and then just one other small reservation. The importers are still hesitant because the first time they sold it they had to pay for a number of boats to be re slipped, sanded and have other antifoul applied at considerable cost. This stuff must be sanded off for anything else to be applied except for another application of the same so I would want to be sure I could get more in future or at least to be able to buy enough now to apply now and perhaps again when it finally starts to fail (who knows it may even fulfil the makers claim and still be working up to 10 years)

I did not get much done today. I popped the 2 roof liners off the roof, they were still not fully cured on the underside, perhaps because the glass was against the sticky tape and could not get air to cure so I stood them to set harder. They are big panels and a little heavier than I thought they would be and perhaps might need to be cut in half again to be both easier to handle on and off the boat and to be properly upholstered but my main concern would be that they can be held up against gravity to the roof (once upholstered so even heavier) as single panels held up with Velcro. Perhaps half again would be better all around. Being big they are also still a little flexible and although they may harden more as they cure over the next few days, again perhaps smaller panels will retain the shape and be stiffer. Having said all of that I am still quite happy with the way they have worked.

I then spent a little time on a rather fun job. I made a cardboard template (well I made 3 before I was happy with the shape) in order to set the cut out curve of the cockpit roof where it cuts inboard as it passes out over the cockpit. This curve creates a space at the helm to enable me to stand at the helm and see over the roof to the port side and forward (although how much vision I have will change once the roof actually goes on) whilst still providing shelter from the elements. Once I have decided on the curve for the helm the same cut out goes onto the port side for symmetry. Like all things this compromise between the amount of shelter (less cut out) or more room to stand and steer (more cut out) is a personal one. There is also one other consideration. The point where the cockpit roof sits along the side above the seats along the side is also important, too far over the seat and stepping down from the hulls onto the seat and then down onto the cockpit floor is impeded by the roof so that you have to twist (limbo) down under it, not far enough over the seat and the seat gets no shelter from sun or rain. I am still not sure I will be cutting enough out of the sides, I may have to cut in another 100mm or so but I will need to err on the side of caution first then trim further I think. It is easer to cut some more out than to cut too far and have to glue back on! But at this stage I am only marking lines and checking them for fit and practicality before actually cutting anything.

Before I had placed the cardboard template against the roof I was a little concerned that I had perhaps left the overhang at the sides a little short in my lack of material, however as soon as I saw the template against the roof I saw that I have judged it well, not much waste but enough overhang to clear my cut-out. I may in fact need to cut in deeper but I will clear the overhang and have room to cut to shape.

The reason I wanted to mark this out is because I will be adding another layer of roof using the nidacore to the underside of the cockpit roof (to add stiffness to the cockpit roof overhang) so again I want to know where I will be cutting the excess off so as to be sure to glue enough to cover the roof area but not have too much waste. I still have to set the rear edge position of the roof (how long the overhang will be) so that the same issue of being able to step down into the cockpit without the roof getting in the way but ideally I would like the roof to cover the rear seat far enough so that standing on the rear seat you can lean on the roof. When I glue the extra roof layer I will leave it about 300mm short of the bulkhead so that I can glass the actual roof to the bulkhead, then add in the last 30mm over that tape then tape that again. I am just a little concerned that I follow the actual structural plans to the letter.

December 4 Experimenting with the roof.

I am hoping to finish the work I want to do to the roof before I lift it onto the boat. Part of what I want to do is to add another layer of core to the cockpit overhang to stiffen it so that it wont flex much if I walk out onto it. The added thickness will also help with the fitting of the sunroofs, the roof is curved but the sunroofs must be mounted flat so the extra thickness will help to bury the flat roof into the roof minimising the amount I have to build the sides back to flat.

I also intend to fit a rim around the roof edge made of pvc pipe. When glassed on it will also help to stiffen the roof but it has 2 other purposes. The round edge makes for a better grip and the raised rim will stop water dripping into the cockpit randomly when it rains, it will pool at the low points each side and then overflow more predicably (makes it easier to avoid it dripping where I don't want it to) or I may decide to actually drain the roof through a deliberate drain point (unlikely).

I have experimented with a piece of pvc pipe. I have one very tight radius curve (the outside back corners) the rest of the curves are very gentle and not too difficult to get the pipe around. At the tight radius curves I will have trouble getting the pipe not to bulge at the bends (kerfs) but this is not too big a problem. Once glued on and a layer of glass on I can grind down the bulges and re-glass the section before bogging it all and fairing the curve. There is only the 2 curves (meaning 4 bulges) and only about 400mm of nearly 6000mm of roof edge. I will have to be more careful cutting the slot in the pipe over long lengths, it is difficult not to get twist in the pipe. I will also cut the pipe just before the corners and only kerf small sections as it goes around the corners and just join the pipe 100mm or so either side of the corners.

I have also marked out the roof shaping and will cut it tomorrow. I will be gluing the extra core layer on Saturday and perhaps also gluing the pvc pipe on. Just inside the pvc pipe on the underside of the roof will be an LED rope light and I will need to fit that at some point or at least make provision for the wiring and fitting. I have also marked the position of the sunroofs, but I am not sure I will cut them into the roof before lifting it onto the boat.

December 6 Stiffening the cockpit roof.

Today the temperature hit 33 and a cool change came through just on quitting time. Perfect! I finished the day exhausted but really pleased with the work I got done. I wasn't happy with the results of the pvc tube experiment for the cockpit roof edge and I gave it a little more thought. In the end I decided that foam would be the best material to use for the edge. The reason is that it can bend both ways up and down to follow the curve of the roof and around the roofs corners.

The reasons I decided against the pvc was firstly the difficulty of getting the curves and cutting the slot for the roof, it meant more work for the same result. Also because whilst the pipe would be a nice shape to hold on to along the roof edge I decided I would rather have an actual hand rail and for that I need a flat surface to mount it to. A hand rail is very handy for hanging towels, and for attaching a lifeline to a harness for use on overnight passages, it will mean unrestricted movement around the cockpit whilst tethered for safety. I was going to try a timber edge but whilst timber can be kerfed to go around the corners it cant bend up and down well enough to meet the curve of the roof.

First job today was to cut the shape of the roof that I had marked out on Thursday. I then cut the nidacore panels to size to fit to the cockpit roof and the glass to go on both sides of it. I wet out the scrim of the panels and glassed the panels off the roof on a workbench. I then spread glue (resin with microspheres) over the cockpit roof and placed the nidacore sheets with the glass still wet onto the glue and left it to set. I attached some strips of timber with screws through to the roof to pull the core down onto the roof to ensure a good bond. This work took all morning and just as I was gluing down the panels Jo arrived with lunch.

After lunch I wet out the exposed scrim and glassed the nidacore on what is now the underside of the roof. I let the glass tack off a little and I cut some foam to make the roof edges. Once I had cut them the glass was tacked off enough so I spread a thin layer of bog over the tacky glass. I made the bog a little more runny than I would normally as the core is pretty fair and is well shaped but I needed to fill the weave of the glass and enough thickness to fair out the roof underside tomorrow or Monday when the bog has hardened.

Because of the heat in the shed, the glass had tacked off in only half an hour. It took me half an hour to cut some strips of foam, I ran a cut down the 40mm edge of the foam sheet 60mm deep then I cut the edge 60mm off leaving me with 2 strips 20mm x 60mm. I did this twice as I needed 3 and a half lengths to wrap around the roof. After I had bogged the roof I mixed some glue and buttered the edge of the roof. I then screwed the 60mm face of the strips to the roof edge. I made the bottom edge of the foam flush with the nidacore bottom of the roof, and the top edge would overhang the top of the roof by about 20mm. The foam is flexible enough to easily bend up to the curve of the roof and to wrap around the edge but needs to be screwed down to hold its shape while the glue sets. It will then be glassed on with layers of uni to stiffen the structure later. By the time I was screwing the edge foam to the roof edge Jo had arrive to pick me up. I was exhausted, hot, itchy and I had a bit of epoxy rash on my inner forearms. Worse than usual but it soon subsided once I had showered.

I left a small gap between the edge of the nidacore and the foam roof edge. The purpose of this 20mm gap is for a trench for the LED rope light to sit in. I will run some glue in the slot then a strip of surfboard cloth down into the slot to finish the trench, then later when I am fitting the electrical out I will fill the trench with the LED rope light and silicone it into the trough once the boat is painted. I also left the nidacore 300mm short of the main bulkhead. The reason for this is so I am glassing the actual roof to the bulkhead. I will then fill that 300mm strip in with nidacore over the glass tapes, and then once it is glassed I will run another cove and tape the nidacore to the bulkhead also. The I will just need to fair out that last strip to finish. That way there is no chance of the roof to bulkhead failing because the secondary bond between the nidacore and the roof failed. It is insurance to ensure the main bond between the roof and the bulkhead is as per the plans, in fact stronger than the plans because of the extra tape between the bulkhead and the nidacore as an addition.

I worked pretty hard today but again the time flew by and I just managed to do all I set out to do today. Tomorrow, a layer of uni on the foam edge, round off the edges with a router and glass the edge to the roof top and bottom and maybe even fair the bog if it is set. In winter there is no way the bog would be set but in summer it is quite likely. Once I have sanded the bog I will attempt to turn the roof over to glass the edge to the roof top but I may need help to turn it over.

December 7 Finishing cockpit roof underside.

Although the weather had cooled overnight, it was temporary. The day got to 27 today, not as hot but when you are sanding, it feels just as hot. The bog had hardened sufficiently overnight to fair it today. I started with the Bohler, a 3 disk rotary sander that I used to start the fairing on the hulls. I start with electric tools and finish by hand. After I had sanded most of the roof down with the Bohler I hit it with a rupes long sander. I then had to backfill pin holes and low parts as I had started to hit glass again meaning a lot of the bog was sanded off. All of this sanding took 4 hours. So I backfilled with epoxy body filler (I used polyester car filler on the daggerboards and am advised not to use it with epoxy) and had a break for lunch.

After lunch I sanded the backfilled section with the Bohler. I then prepared the saloon roof (front section) for a coat of white pigment filled epoxy as a sealer coat. I did not fair this section, I built the roof liners last week but I would still like the roof to be a clean surface so that it can be wiped clean when the roof liners are removed (in case mould should grow from tropical heat). I applied the coat quiet thickly. Once it is set I will give it a light sand then give it another coat. The thick epoxy will act as a filler to partly fair the surface. I also routed the bottom edge round on foam edge and ran some sandpaper on a block over it to smooth it out.

All of the work today was tedious, boring and low satisfaction jobs with little or nothing to show. But it did take all day. The roof is almost ready to turn over. I still need to give the cockpit underside a few coats of highbuild and a bit more sanding. Once over I will finish the edging and uni glass and final glass it on and bog it. Then the roof can pretty much go on the boat. So hopefully that will take place next weekend.

December 9 Keying saloon roof coat.

I am very happy with the white epoxy coat. I applied it very thick and it has acted like a highbuild filler and filled most of the irregularities of the unfaired saloon roof. In places it is so thick and because it is self levelling is very smooth. I applied the coat late in the afternoon on a coolish day so I got very few heat bubbles in the set. I was not quite so thick in some parts and the weave of the cloth below has stamped through the thinner areas and because the thick areas are so smooth and so nice a finish that I have decided I would like a second coat, just to make the overall finish a bit more uniform.

Using the Bohler I am keying the surface of the white epoxy. What this means is I am sanding the smooth gloss finish off the surface in order for the next coat to have something to grip to. It took me a little over an hour to apply the first coat so about an hour should be enough time to apply another coat. And about an hour to sand the surface enough to remove the gloss on the surface. So I feel it is worth the 2 hours work and the small amount of white epoxy to get a really good surface even if it will be under a lining and unseen the entire time.

Once I have this extra coat on and a coat of highbuild on the cockpit roof I will turn the roof over and finish the cockpit edge glassing. Once that is done the roof can go on the boat. I wont cut the sunroof holes until the roof is attached. Whilst it will be easier on the ground there is a small risk that the holes will weaken the roof sufficiently that when manhandling it onto the boat it might break. Unlikely but not worth the risk. Imagine my horror if it did. Once on the boat I can cut the holes, de-core the edges and back fill with a uni rope to re strengthen the roof and once the sunroofs are in the roof should be strong enough again to walk on.

I am very excited at the prospect of getting the roof on the boat. It is one of the milestones I have dreamt about for a long time. With the roof and cockpit sides on the shell is complete. There is of course a mountain of work still to do but at least the shape of the boat (apart from the rear steps) will be completed.

December 12 Saloon roof second coat.

With the first white epoxy coat keyed it didn't take long to give the saloon roof a second coat. And of course I used much less white epoxy on the second coat than on the first. About a third less. I just mixed it up and poured it on and then used a foam roller to spread it around and even it out, mopping up runs where I had poured too much on for it to hold on its own. The thick mix is self levelling so as soon as you run the roller through the marks that are left by it in the surface melt away again leaving a level high gloss finish.

Once I had finished sanding the saloon roof for recoating today I gave the cockpit roof a sand to finish it ready for highbuild. There were still a few pock marks here and there and Warren was repairing his daggerboard and had some filler mixed that he did not need so I used that to fill the last of the marks in the roof.

Tomorrow I will give the cockpit roof a final sand and fill the gap I left for the LED rope light with filler, then once it sets I will sand it and route the slot back in again for the LED and this side of the roof is finished for now and I can turn it over to finish the work I want to do to the top of it (uni glass the edge around the front and over the top to form a girder of uni all around to stiffen the roof) before lifting it onto the boat.

December 13 Tried to turn the roof over.

The second white epoxy coat set beautifully except for one small area about 200mm x 400mm where rain had dripped through the roof (it was raining quite heavily as I was applying the epoxy) onto the wet epoxy. The effect of this was to create some craters where the rain hit the roof, about 20 droplets. I have given the area a sand and will give this area one more coat but it really does not need it, I am just being a bit too pedantic about it.

I also sanded the cockpit roof. Next step with this will be highbuild.

Then I pottered around a while on other jobs waiting for some visitors to arrive. I measured the new door positions for the ensuite and walk in wardrobe on bulkhead 4. They are moved out toward the outside of the hulls because the mast posts will be on the chamfer panel and protrudes into the inboard side of the doors. The engineering is being done on the bi rig now, part of the new plans have arrived. The masts wont sit in sockets anymore, the new plan is to build posts that are glassed into the boat through the deck and then the masts fit on these posts as a male and the mast female, instead of the original idea of building tubes into the hull and the mast is the male and the tube the female. This old idea had drainage problems as well as the mast being buried into the boat meaning a longer mast. This new idea has it mounted outside of the boat with the deck sealed to the post and the mast sitting on the post to deck level and the bearings outside of the boat on the posts.

Jo came and bought me lunch as she usually does on Saturday and informed the the visitors I thought would be coming wouldn't be so no help to turn the roof over. I thought an early day was in order. Warren was at the shed repairing a daggerboard and we tried to move the roof just the 2 of us. No good, too heavy. Then Warren had the idea of winching the roof over by running a rope and pulleys to pull the roof over on one end and stand it up before lowering it down again over the other way. We lifted the roof up onto some drums to get it started when I realised that was as much as I needed to work on the top of the roof. We continued on with the turning idea. It didn't work. It was my job to hold the front of the roof in place so that it would not just slide along the floor toward the wall with the pulley. I was not paying attention and also not holding the roof well enough and when the winch cranked the roof up off the drums it just pushed me out of the way and slid along the floor. We could have tried it again but I decided we didn't need to bother, I could get under the roof to do what I needed (finish the edge) before getting a bunch of guys to help me lift it onto the boat.

I got under the roof and ground the glue that had squeezed out from the edge off so that I can glue the rest of the roof lip on and glass it.

I also have a small dip in the roof in the middle and I have followed the dip with the edge. I will remove the dip in the edge and bog the dip in the top to flatten it out. I don't see or feel the dip in the underside of the roof so it has been taken out by the extra core layer. The dip is exactly in the middle and I had considered leaving it in. I may still do so once it is on the boat but I don't think so.

Tomorrow I will glue the rest of the foam to the top of the roof ready for the uni and glass and maybe take the dip out of the edge top and bottom.

December 14 Roof rim foam glued on.

The intention of the foam to create a lip around the cockpit roof is threefold, so that rain will not drip randomly over the edge it should pool and be drained where it want it to or at least predictably, also so that I have a flat surface for attaching a hold rail that I intend to run around the entire roof all the way up from the deck and around to the other deck and to run a uni rope around angled from the front face over to the top face so that when set this uni acts like a girder to stiffen up the roof left to right, and hopefully a similar structure around a solar panel box and perhaps the uni around the sunroof cut-outs will stiffen the roof fore and aft.

I had already glued the front foam around the edge, today with the roof leaning up on the drums I was able to get under the roof to glue the edge strips on. To create the strips I ran the portable saw with a fence on along the edge of a foam sheet to create 40mm (the foam sheet thickness) by 20mm (the depth set to the fence) strips. They are fairly flexible buy not flexible enough to bend around the 2 curves across their fat side without some help. (The front strip could be bent around easily). The tight radius back corner bends I did with triangular kerfs cut into the inside of the bend about 35mm of the 40mm depth about 3mm wide at the inside edge down to a point. About 5 cuts like this spaced about 10mm apart was enough to create the bend.

Once I had these kerfs cut into small strips of the foam I dry fitted them, then dry fitted the long strip across the back edge, then finally I set about making the last strips one either side go from the back corner, along the side around the larger radius bend to the roof side. I had intended torturing this around and having Warren screw it in place for me while I held it bent around the corner which I could do. But he suggested a much easier way. Whilst I held the piece in place and slowly bent it around the corner it had to fit on he hit it with a heat gun. As the heat builds the foam becomes more pliable and once fully formed to the curve and cooled again it holds that shape for gluing. Much less work when actually gluing it.

With all the parts dry fit, starting at one end I removed them, buttered them with glue and re-attached them. I squeezed glue into any remaining gaps, cleaned up squeeze out and that was it for the day, or should I say half day. I dont think I will apply the uni before I get the roof on the boat. I am still in 2 minds. On the one hand the more I do on the ground the easier it will be once the roof is up, and the stiffer the roof the easier to handle and finally in the case for doing more on the ground, the foam is quite fragile and dents easily so as soon as the glass is on the structure is more secure. In the case for leaving it until the roof is on, is weight, the more I add now the heavier it is to lift, and if I do need any more minor bends in the roof it will be that much harder once the stiffening uni is on. I doubt I could influence a change in shape now but perhaps if I wanted to pull the middle down or the edges down a few millimetres and I could brace it in some way to set then perhaps doing this on the boat and then applying the uni might help a little.

I will decide which way I want to go in the next few days. I need to put together a roof lifting posse which might take a few days, and I have to set up my braces on the boat to hold the roof in place once it is lifted on, so there is still come work to do first. I am also running out of free weekends before Christmas. Next weekend is Jo's family Christmas then the following weekend is mine so there wont be much more work done this side of Christmas. I would really like to get the roof on the boat this year though. That would be a nice way to round out the year.

December 23 Roof on.

Today we lifted the roof up onto the boat. I got some help from Terry (building an Easy), Warren (built a Crowther), Dave (fairing the Waller) and Pat (owns and sails an Endeavour 26), thanks guys. The 5 of us lifted the roof on fairly easily in about 20 minutes. We lifted the roof straight up onto its rear edge then over the rest of the way leaning onto the boat, then slid it slowly up onto the boat, then lifted it past the point where the weight shifted forward of the bulkhead and the roof rested on the legs I had attached at the front.

The lifting was not too hard as we didn't need to lift the full weight, we just slid it onto the boat and up onto the bulkhead and into place. Then it was just a matter of moving it this way or that, up or down at the front until it was pretty much in place. It still needs some fine tuning but is basically in place.

Once the roof had been lifted onto the boat and roughly into place, the guys had to go and I spent some time admiring my work. I couldn't hang around too long as Terry was driving me home, but staring at a major milestone achieved is an important part of being able to finish a project like this, and fortunately I had forgotten my laptop at the shed, so the moment Terry dropped me off I got in the car and went back to the shed for 15 more minutes of admiring the way the roof fitted over the cockpit.

 

Whilst lifting the roof into place I did just a little damage to the foam edge, it should not be too hard to fix before I glass the edge with uni. I have a slight dip in the middle of the rear of the roof, I don't think that it is in the roof itself but more in the edging. If it is in the roof I can bog that out. I ran a straight edge along the edge trim and it was flat so it could be that the roof will be manipulated into place level and then when the uni goes on and sets it holds the kink out. I may not attempt to remove it though as I kind of like the look of the curve and it is a symmetrical and centred dip and looks deliberated. I will decide on that over the next week or so whilst I am away (Jo and I are driving down to have Christmas with my family in Melbourne).

I am immensely pleased to have got the roof on the boat as I had aimed for this month. It is another of those major milestones to be enjoyed. I will have a week or so away and time to reflect on the work done and the work I want to achieve in 2009. Thank you to all that have read the site, emailed advise or questions and to all I wish a safe and happy festive season. Hopefully next year will bring many more highlights like today as the boat gets ever closer to launch so that hopefully by this time next year most of the work will be done and launch wont be very far off.

December 31 More learning.

I have not had a chance to do anymore work on the boat this past week. After family Christmas in Melbourne I thought I would get 2 full days at it but the opportunity to help a friend and sail down to Sydney arose. I jumped at it. Warren's 40ft Cat has a mast height about a metre higher than the clearance under a bridge to get back out so it is quite a detailed job getting the mast down enough to get under so I offered to help him get it under. Then once under Warren offered me a berth for the night and a spot to crew on the short day sail down to Sydney which effective used 2 days that I might have used to build, but I learnt far more than I would have gained building. This is the same boat I spent last NYE on but did not sail it down, and this year I got to sail it down but then caught the train back in the afternoon to spend a quiet NYE at home with Jo. We did not stay on board overnight after the fireworks last year and by the time you get home it is 4am so we decided as much fun as it is seeing the fireworks on the harbour (and we were invited to do so again) we decided there will be plenty of opportunity to see them on our own boat in future. I hardly slept on board out of the excitement of being on board and sailing down so that as well as the sail down and then the fireworks, then getting home around 4am, I would not have made it, so the decision was the right one.

But the chance to sail down was too good an opportunity to learn. I still don't really know how to sail and am taking any opportunity to do so as our launch gets closer. I don't feel that I am learning much as a crew member and I am hoping this is normal. I am trying to understand and concentrating but not much is sinking in or making much sense except at the time it is occurring, then its gone, nothing retained that I can say I learnt today. Maybe it becomes instinctive, once you get out there and are faced with decisions you feel for the right answer from some retained memory of what happened on some previous sail as crew, but I feel that until I am out there making decisions rather than doing what I am told by the skipper I wont really understand what I am doing, or at least in a way that I can articulate.

But I did learn one thing about myself and sailing in general today. I learnt, well not learnt more reaffirmed that for now at least I am not in the least bit competitive about sailing. Most sailors seem to be (and I may turn out to be but doubt it) and I mean that in no way disrespectfully, especially to my gracious host. But in most of the sailing situations I have been in there has always been an urgency to doing things such as winding on winches during a tack so as not to get into irons during the turn. Today Warren asked me to wind on a winch and try as I might I fumbled with the winch handle, wound ropes onto winches the wrong way and even got my nose in the way of Warrens elbow whilst he was winding furiously causing a bit of a bloody nose.

From my perspective as a wannabe cruiser, whilst I could see that to get the foresail sheeted fast and not lose momentum was good, it was not disastrous not to, the times I messed it up, we stalled a little but were soon underway again. No biggie to me. But I fully respected the skippers wishes, he wanted things done a certain way and not just because of being grateful of the opportunity but out of the respect I would expect as the skipper when my turn comes I fully tried my hardest. And in retrospect I am sure that learning urgency in non urgent situations is a fantastic learning tool, one I plan to use myself by practising such things, but I reaffirmed my wish to be a laconic cruiser in no great rush to do anything unless trying to learn urgency or unless the situation is truly urgent. Which in turn re affirmed my belief in my choice of rig. I have absolutely no idea how to sail it (even less so that a traditional rig) but I was sold on its simplicity which will reinforce my cruisers nature and winding furiously on a winch to sheet home a foresail in a tack wont be part of my cruising pastime. And if I do stall in a turn, unless there is imminent danger of for example a lee shore (in which case the iron sails, the motors, would have been deployed well before anyway) I wont care at all, it will come around or fill up or take off or whatever and we will continue on our happy unflustered way. And if you are behind me trying to catch me, furiously and no doubt happily cranking on this and pulling on that, I will wave to you as you go past me. (Ironically a lot of my crewing experience is coming in twilight racing, so of course the sailors all want to sail faster, but sometimes even though we are racing I just cant see the point of constantly tweaking trying to eke out what amounts to a few feet at the line in what also amounts to just social racing with the emphasis on social not racing! to me the enjoyment of being out there is enough, but as a grateful participant and also that grateful or not I should respect the skipper and do as they ask I always try to do my best).

The other thing I leant is that you can never take another persons knowledge or lack thereof for granted. If you are relying on them to know something you have to be absolutely sure (and double check) that they know what they are doing. In order to get the boat under the bridge, the shrouds need to be undone by turning a turnbuckle with a thread on each end until it is off. I turned the turn buckle in the direction I thought I was told to do so, and was in fact tightening not loosening my side, when the other side was at the last couple of turns, the added tension that I created by tightening caused that side to pull out of the threads stripping out the last part of the thread. I had no idea I was turning the wrong way, I had no idea it was getting harder for a reason even though I had helped with this same task a year before, not unlike the way I am learning to sail, following orders does not seem to be a way I learn well. The problem with stripped threads is that when you attempt to put it back together the threads can cross and you in effect cut a new thread path which weakens a critical part of the boat that if weakened enough could have catastrophic later consequences, in that the mast could come down in a strong wind and the rest of that thought does not bear thinking.

The owner was justifiably upset with me, and again I mean this in no way disrespectfully to him but I almost caused a disaster through my lack of knowledge however I have wracked my brain to see if I could have done any better and I cant get away from the thought that if I don't know I am doing something wrongly then how can I have done any better. The lesson for me was that in order to avoid this happening to me when I get people to help me, I have to assume that everyone else is as dumb as I am and that I need to be careful that they understand my instructions or be absolutely confident they already know more than I do.

Finally I learnt that I do like sailing even though I don't fully understand it yet and I don't feel as urgently about it as others do. The last 2 times I have been out of the bays (once on a small mono and once on this same cat) there was no wind so we motored all day, today there was wind even though at one point we were sailing into it, and I really enjoyed the 4 hour sail, 3 hours head to head of about 20 nautical miles so averaging 7 knots. It was a beautiful day, and whilst I know not everyday will be like that, I am sure we are going to enjoy the vast majority of our time sailing. How could you not, Sydney is one of the most beautiful harbours anywhere in the world, the weather was great, sunny and about 28 degrees, the winds whilst gusty and strong at times (we pulled the headsail down at one stage but 10 minutes later it was back up) it was fantastic to be out there.

NYE is a time for reflection of the year just passed and planning for the year ahead. In 2008 I achieved 795 hours build time an improvement over the 737 hours in 07 and 545 in 06, but in order to get to my goal this year I need 1000 hours. That's 83 hours a month. If I achieve 80 I will be happy and over 3000. Its going to be tough to achieve as I thought I did pretty well this year, but I am just going to have to make a few more sacrifices and perhaps start working at night more. I think it will be harder in the first half of the year but as the end gets nearer then I think momentum will build with the excitement and I will start to accelerate. Thanks again to all the readers and especially all those who write to us, please do if you have been contemplating it and also don't hesitate to visit if in the area. One of my great joys in the build is chatting to others about boats.