On The Move

With the exterior pretty much complete it was time for Gollywog to say goodbye to the big shed and hello the outside world. With a small amount of winching she was lifted up approximately 4 feet in the air and then extracted by our friendly driver from Sealand Boat Deliveries.

Where to? Derbyshire of course. Why? The rent and council tax were frankly crippling the budget. despite Chehire council quoting us a discounted rate because we weren't operating a business, after 6 months they changed their mind and began charging us over 7000 pounds a year for the pleasure of occupying a grotty shed, and whilst the rent was reasonable the landlord was utterly obnoxious. So all in all the price we paid not to get rained on afforded us the luxury of being defecated on instead.

What's next? Now it's time to tackle the interior fit out. In the pleasant surroundings of Roger's yard (where he likes to build steam locomotives and things) and starting with the mechanical side of things, steering, exhaust, electrics etc and with increasing interest from advertising on Apollo Duck it's only a matter of time till she is steaming into the sunset!

Before and After

As the title suggests, this post contains mostly contains before and after photos of the restoration so far. Enjoy!

And as special treat here is a photo of the intrepid photographer himself.

Cockpit's Edge

Laser cut from my old friend 316 stainless steel I laid out the pieces needed to re-trim the edges in something more classy and more Halvorsen than the 70's composite edging it was originally fitted with. 

I trimmed, bent and screwed all 5 pieces to perfectly follow the shape of the boat. Chamfering the joining edges ready for welding.

To maintain a perfect fit I tack welded all the pieces while they were held in place. Using short bursts of high amperage I was able to fuse the steel cold enough not to discolour the wood.

Then with the magic of two days blending the welds, machining the rounded edges, grinding the machining marks, and linishing the grinding marks, only then was I able to begin buffing to a mirror finish.

However despite all the tedious polishing the results are quite satisfying, using matching 316 filler wire allowed me to create invisible joints forming one single ribbon of shininess round the Cockpit's edge.

Bow Handrails

Who doesn't like bow handrails. They embody everything that's great about owning a big motor yacht. The delightful arrogance of igniting fossil fuels and ploughing through the elements with style and grace begins with a strong bow.

I based my stanchion design on a pre-war Bentley handbrake (left), not because I don't have any imagination but because it's a lovely shape. I then produced some CAD drawings and a cardboard prototype.

Using the drawings I had everything I needed laser cut from 6mm 316 Stainless Steel by Alma Sheet Metal. Along with a few other parts for other jobs coming soon!

I added tabs to the centre 'holy' piece and slots to the outers so everything simply slotted, welded and then blended together with no welds showing. Simply.

All the parts were polished before and after I assembled them to get the best possible finish. Not forgetting the polished stainless screws.

Each stanchion was fitted according to the curvature of the deck and the handrail itself was rolled to follow the shape of the boat.

I used a laser to line up the beginning of the hand rails with the existing design.

And the finished thing, complete with the Chrome plated portholes.

More Shiny Things

The bronze port holes have been chrome plated to fit in with all the polished stainless steel and also for easy maintenance, after all who wants to spend their time bent over buffing portholes.

   

However the inner opening part, I have left bronze to fit in with the vintage charm of the interior.

I also had this lovely little flag pole holder plated so it didn't feel left out.

Continuing the vintage interior thing, these inwards opening wheelhouse doors have been fitted with fancy Timage anti-rattle brass faced stainless bodied mortice locks, whilst the rebate design allowed me to cut an unobstructed recess around the whole door to fit and aquamac weather seal. Lovely stuff.

Stainless Steel

Recent jobs completed include finishing the removable fore cabin hatch designed by Ritchie. The unit has been finished with 6 coats of International 2k varnish and I flush fitted polished 316 stainless steel piano hinges to give the clean design bonus of being easy to clean.

I replaced the old Vetus 110 stainless steel bollards with new Vetus 110 stainless steel bollards.

And finally a quick glimpse at the work in progress on the 316 stainless steel hand rails.

Deks'ing the Decks

This week, I have mostly been, preparing the side decks and applying Deks Olje saturator to protect the bare teak. Splashing it on with a paint brush and wiping off the excess with a clean rag makes this a satisfyingly simple job. Next I'll be fabricating the stainless steel handrails... which is not so simple.