Monday 29 September 2014

Long time no action but ....

Well it has been a very long time since I posted an update to my blog.  Lots has happened in my life, I was very ill for a while and as a result no longer commuting to London every day, and no longer in a profession I have been in for over 30 years.    Stopped drinking alcohol, only drink water and tea now.  Lost weight, now starting out on my own gardening and DIY in Sussex and surrounding area.  Bought a VW T25 camper and had to do lots of tinkering.  Drove all the way to Bordeaux in the summer which was fun and surprisingly relaxing.   Also making things from recycled materials, bug hotels, candle holders, wooden iPhone amplifiers, all-sorts, whatever takes my fancy and whatever springs to mind.  Also have a few dinghies to work on for some friends.

Sea Witch has been sadly neglected but not forgotten.  Today I finally pulled back the tarp and got to fitting the new windows.  I had four identical frames cut from 3mm stainless left over from another boat project.   The idea is to put one frame inside and one out and to bolt through the fibreglass and sandwich a tinted perspex window inbetween.

Today I used Sikaflex to fix the port inner frame in place.   i bolted the outer frame in place to pull the inner frame against the coachroof and to give an even fix.  I will then remove the outer frame, bed in the perspex and re fit the outer frame and place the bolts and dome nuts back. Once the Sikaflex has cured I will tighten the bolts to give a water tight seal.

This may seem all a bit OTT but I had the stainless and having the frame in one piece gives the boat a good look I think as well as adding some strength.  Here is a pic of the frame in place before fitting the perspex.  More later this week and hopefully this is the start of more activity... Famous last words...