Drilling The Prop Shaft Hole

 Trustee Ron has set to work drilling the hole through the hull for the prop shaft.
        
       He has made  two wooden blocks to support the shaft end . He now needs to enlarge this hole to fit the shaft.

This is where the shaft comes out of the hull .






Making rope pulleys for the boat sails and rigging.

Meanwhile Wednesday Phil has been experimenting with building rope blocks to look traditional.
First he watched you tube videos of making blocks and then tried himself.
Lots of practice and learning by experimenting ensued.

 Bending metal bar was the first problem .Each bar had to fit the block faces.At first the only way to bend the bar was with a vice.

Later Phil created a jig  from oak and this solved the problem .

The metal was finished off  and checked for fit in the vice.

 With the oak sides cut and the outside  faces routed to seat the metal bar, the parts can be put together and the wood glued and held fast for 24 hours.








 You can click on the picture to enlarge it to see the metal bar slotted into the side faces.This is then drilled through to take the pin for the rollers.

The unwanted wood is then cut off and the block is sanded down to finish the design.

These are then coated with Teak Oil via a brush.

The block on the left is the finished article !

Wednesday Phil is producing approximately one a day and refining techniques based on evaluation of the finished article !











  

THE WORST JOB I'VE EVER DONE !

 Over the past weeks Wednesday Phil has been in the bilges (botton of the boat ) painting below the floors with bitumen paint.It was hot , fume filled and dark . 
The paint got everywhere - on paintwork ,clothes ,car, home furniture and dog !!!

 
If anyone thinks working on old boats is romantic they should try that job.