puttin El Prop on!

Well, today we put the prop shaft in permanently! Heres some pics of it! still to go on though, is the rope cutter and the anode, the reason we look like chimney sweeps is because Drew and I were sanding some fairing earlier in the day.
first the prop shaft...

then the prop!...

tighten the big nut!

and its done!

How I woke up on the 21st.... no comment

How I woke up on my 21st... dont ask


hey guys! took a trip this weekend to get boat parts and such, but also went to tour all the sweet old ships and such in porstmouth, went to stonehenge, went to the boat jumble at beuleigh, camped out in some field, spent the night in a pub in a marina. All to be written for now haha, heres pics to tell it all.

The hms victory, nelsons flagship at trafalgar

the henge

the spot on deck of the victory where nelson was shot

Got the Black Lung

Hey Dudes, good picture for yah of the work were doing right now, the weather is nice so now were on to the exterior. What we've gotta do first is us filler and then sand everything to get everything nice, flush, round, and shipshape. The problem with making a yacht out of steel is that when you weld it all together it gets warped and then you hafta fair it in. Anyways, this was the dustiest day in the history of the boat, we had to put a tarp up over the aft deck while we ground out fairing that had cracked all over it so that the dust wouldnt get on neighboring yachts. Their yachts stayed clean, we looked like chimney sweeps. Cheers guys.

Led Zeppelin and Welsh Cakes

The first beach we went to, sweet, but no sand.


Howdy All, Sorry its been so long since a post... again... but will actually be doing more posts when we actually sail 'cause they'll be a little more exciting. But anywho the lowdown for now. Work is cruisin along, were working even untill 8 or 9 pm somedays because it now stays light that late and were getting in the groove. Finishng up the deckhead cladding at the moment which takes a long time. We hafta mix up this glue that has formaldehyde in it (remember that from biology?) and then we have about two hours to use it before it sets up. this may sound pokey but we can only get about 7 full length cladding planks out of each pot and it takes the full two hours to do it. Mostly because we have to fit the planks around all the studs we welded to the deckhead which hold the whole affair up. Were about 2/3rds done with all cladding though! Woo hoo! and have started working on the exterior on nice days. When you see the pictures of the cladding just to appreciate the time it takes, first we hand machined every single piece, split them in half on the table saw to get them so slim, and then routed the edges to get the bevels. Then we can only do about 20-30 planks a day and that takes ALL day. But it looks fantastic! In other news, been going to this local church here now regularly thats great. You've never heard a worship service until you've been in a huge wooden hall with a hundred welshman belting out hymns accompanied by String Instruments, Woodwinds, Grand Piano and Drums. Also the other day Drew and I took a day off and went in search of some sandy beaches to use our skimboard on. We made it to one beach in a village called southerndown but there was no sand. It was gorgeous though, sooooo it being the UK, we went to the next village over ( called Ogmore-by-sea?) to check out that beach... it took a minute to drive between the villages... literally.. haha! And we found a sweet sweep of sandy beach complete with sheep grazing and " 'er ladyshi'p" riding horses on it. The heavens shown down saying "this is the beach" and we promptly ruined the picturesque british scene with our vulgar Yank frisbee and skimboarding for the afternoon! Take it easy guys!
Puttin Cladding up in tha Saloon! Cladding everywhere you can see A little skim action!
Drew cruising along

Holy Ship! literaly!

yep, its a big bow
the tres amigos

Howdy guys! sorry for the infrequent update, computer was out of action again. - Boats goin well! Steering is almost done! Weve got our wheel up! and should have a fully steering boat in a few days. Drew and I finished all the ply wood up on the deckhead and should be doing cladding soon! On tuesday we drove to bristol to pick up some stuff and decided to stop off at the S.S. Great Britain. - the first( I think) Iron ship, which was also the fastest ship in the world under power at its time. It was an amazing feat of engineering for 1843 including the 4 piston steam engine that was larger than almost our entire boat! It was abandoned in the falklands but then barged up to bristol and put in the dry dock where it was built which is where it is now. The real cool thing about it is the glass you can see in the pics around the water line. Its got water on top of it so it looks like its floating but what it is really doing is preserving the bottom half of the ship which you can walk around. Below the water line the iron was so impregnated with salt it would decompose if left in the open so under the ship in the drydock is actually entirely conditioned with warm air and dehumidifcation to stop the ship from disentigrating. It was quite wild to see! by the way, the ship was full of holes. our wheel!imagine making that when folks were still riding horses around.

Tea Break

Quickie for yah- heres a pic of our tea break today, been a long day of some sweet hard labor. It was warm, sunny, and windless today so we actually sweated! Wish I was back home sitting in class on a day like this? Nope. For all of you that were in class today, Carry on! And one day, you'll be able to afford us paupers to sail you around! Haha take it easy guys. Oh, and we gave ol duke a haircut!

The Brecon Beacons! and a few pics of some work

Howdy all, short post but lotsa pics. Quick rundown! - Work on boat is goin sweet, getting a lot done, weather is getting warmer so soon enough should be able to get to final fairing and painting of the boat! Interior is about to get majorly underway with putting up the Deckhead ( ceiling) so pics will follow of that soon. Other happenings- Fell in with a sweet crew, met some folks that love the outdoors as much as drew and I do so been going on some good trips, weekend before last went to the welsh national climbing center in the valleys and climbed all day. last weekend we went to the brecon beacons national park and did some great hiking in the mountains, it was so beautiful and different to hiking in the u.s. Parts of the hike were on an old roman fort road of which there were still a few stones in place, next to that were sheeps haha! God has made a beautiful world. The crew weve been going with is pretty international haha, a girl from germany, a guy from sweden, the trip to the beacons a swiss lady and some welsh folks came along too. The pics of working are from this morning when we were modifying the rudder. Take it easy! - Andy
a perdy little frozen pool on top of a mountain
our trail
duke welding, drew cutting, the rudder is hollow so it can be filled with oil, it makes it lighter in the water
doin a little cutting m'self
the crew at a peak about to eat lunch
eating an apple on the verge! so pretty from up top