Talk Morgan Forums Community General Photo Gallery Boat build

Another experiment in photo posting, this photo was taken yesterday, if this works I will add earlier pictures of the build and bore you all.

Fantastic, it worked, now I can add earlier pictures if there's any appetite for them out in TM land. I might even do it there's not.😂

Yet again I've managed to get these in the wrong order.

Stern of the hull with lift strakes fitted and ready for glass fibre.


Bow shot of the same stage. I decided at this point to fit a bow thruster so ended up cutting a 125mm hole through the hull


Plywood skin completed.


The transom step, this was another change from the plan to give the boat a more up to date look. Again designed using the trial and error method.


Earlier stage of above.


How to turn a 30' sheet of plywood, get two strapping young lads to help dad whilst mum takes a photo. So it hasn't been entirely a one man job!


This takes us up to the end of 2014 and 628 hours work.
I think I'll stop there today, phew, and you all thought Kefitz winter tale was a saga, in the words of smashie and nicey " you ain't seen nothing yet"

I hope everyone had as good a Christmas day as was possible this year. Boxing Day boredom has arrived so I thought I'd upload some more photos.
Yet again, not in any particular order.

Here's the bow thruster tunnel installed and cut.


And from inside the hull


How to cut a perfect circle in a multi curved area. After much head scratching I came up with this solution, a length of 20mm wardrobe rail bored right through the hull and the router with the base removed attached.


Glassed in.


And complete. The hull is coated with copper coat anti fouling for hopefully less maintenance, time will tell.


This is the cloth being fitted prior to wetting out with epoxy resin.


And the resin being applied.


This is the hull prior to the cloth being fitted. I chose the dry method of application because it's easier for amateurs allegedly. You coat the hull with resin, allow to dry, abrade well to provide a key then cloth and wet out with layers of resin until the weave is completely covered and smooth. You can do this without abrading if you apply the next coat whilst the previous is still tacky, I couldn't achieve this so a huge amount of time involved in abrading between coats unfortunately.


Here's the fibreglassed hull complete with the antifouling and primer.


The fibreglassing has been the least enjoyable part of the build, extremely messy, time consuming and hazardous to your health. I wouldn't want to do this bit again.

This was in 2015, I also got it painted this year so I'll add more photos later along with an hour's total. It was a big year as I recall.

Nice work Gordon!
Bow thruster? Posh! (and practical ).

Thanks Graham.
Yes, I found the bow thruster was a huge benefit in the locks when we've hired boats in the past. One incident that sticks in my mind was in the Fonserannes locks on the canal du midi. We were the only boat going up so the operator decided to flood two chambers at once to speed things up. One chamber in that thing is scary but two for a land lubber like me was a brown trouser moment. Anyway, I was out on the foredeck videoing and Mrs D was doing the hard work holding the rope, only with the power of the water crashing in she couldn't. The boat ended up sideways in the lock and being swept backwards towards the lock gates. I got back to the helm in about 5 seconds and fired up the thruster, luckily the operator seen this and had started closing the sluice gates by this point. Disaster averted but a valuable lesson learned on my part.
https://images.app.goo.gl/JoVequvsLucUYoA36

The locks are well worth a visit, more interesting for me though was the boat push that they installed next to them. It was a good idea but unfortunately never worked due to lack of traction and sits there to this day as a failed engineering project.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonserannes_Water_Slope

Fascinating watching the progress, what a major build thanks for sharing this story.

Checking my build diary I see the painting was completed in December 2016 so here's some more pics that take us up till that point.
763 hours at the end of 2015
1334 hours at December 2016 when the hull was finally ready for turning.

I find it doesn't matter in which order I select the photos they seem to upload randomly, I suspect it is file size?
Anyhow I will just describe what you're seeing and you can arrange them correctly in your own head😄

The completed hull ready for turning.


The blue being applied,


And complete


Mrs D even got roped in to help with the glass fibre, not the most flattering picture I've taken of her but she's never been afraid to get stuck in and do some manual work, that's part of the reason I married her I think.


White gloss paint applied ready for masking and blue gloss.


The rest of the glass fibre team. This was prior to starting, none of us were this smiley at the end of the day.


I also got help from a work colleague to apply the gloss, it's a two pack Hempel gloss applied using a foam roller and tipped off with a brush. A reasonable result was obtained, not as good as spraying but nowhere near as hazardous to your health unless you invest in the right equipment.

Hull turning photos next when I can find them in the digital abyss.

Really enjoying the pics .... fine workmanship going into that boat .....that's a serious project. Keep them coming!


K

ASTOUNDING stuff Gordon, you created a good team there too. When I saw the rib assembly my first thought was the size weight and quite how the finished hull would be rotated in time.. Kinda holding my breath in anticipation of seeing pics of how you accomplished that task....

Gordon, really enjoying these, brings back memories of building a 57' narrowboat, which I sadly miss

Cheers guys, most of the interesting hull turning footage is in video form so I've requested the help of my youngest son to to upload and post links
It may or may not work, as with any offspring request you have to be patient, ask nicely at the correct time and accept any stick about your ability to survive in the modern world when the only skill you have is hitting things with a hammer.😂😂😂