Keel and Frames

The keel was laid on the 3 October 1997 this took around two weeks to complete. Next came the frames they were laid out on the ground and tack welded together. This showed up the first problem as the electricity supply kept tripping. The supply was tested and we found that only 170 volts were present at the build site end. The boatyard owner was not interested in this he said had never been a problem for any one else. We measured the voltage at the supply side and it was also only 170 volts. As I had already paid for the year and as I could not move anywhere else, seven tons of steel and the entire base etc. were not easily moved even if I had somewhere to go to.

The only solution was to buy a generator. I purchased a 6 kva generator and continued building the frames. This took six weeks. By this time it was December and getting very cold. No work took place over Christmas 1997 as we had a lot of snow. My timing plan was starting to develop serious flaws. I had not thought about the British winter and very seriously under estimated the time it took to build the hull. I had not even placed the frames into the keel.

Building commenced at the end of January 1998. The frames were placed into the keel one by one. Then the stringers were put into the slots in the frames. This took six weeks. In my timing plan I had estimated that the keel complete with side plates and frames and stringers would take six weeks to finish. It had taken nearly 18 weeks to get this far, three times as long. Moral was low. I spent the next 10 days measuring and making sure the frames, stringers and keel were in the right place and at right angles to each other.

Here Steel Kit were helpful. I asked if they could measure the distances from bottom of keel to the top of the bulwarks and although it took them two weeks to do this the information finally arrived. All the measurements were spot on. I could start tack welding on the keel plates.

The Plating of the Hull

This was what I needed plates going on to the boat. At long last it started to look like something. It only took a week to tack weld the starboard plates in place. I then decided to weld these plates up inside and out. This took another week as I was still using the stick welder.

The port keel plates were then started. This proved to be a difficult undertaking as welding proved to be a job for an acrobat and a very small thin person. The keel plates at the bow were easy plenty of room as the keel was accessible. The further aft I went the deeper and narrower the keel became and reaching the transom area proved to be impossible. So I had to cut out a section of keel plate and weld in a piece of flat bar so that the keel plate could then be welded onto it. This part of the build took another week.

Next came the bottom plating. These plates went on without any problems both sides were tacked in place within three weeks.

Top side plates next and these proved to be more difficult as no sky hooks were available. I considered making a gantry so that I could attach a block and tackle but this proved to be to expensive. The solution was to use muscle power and even though it was very hard slow work it saved £300. The bow port bow plate went on first this can be seen in the photo album section. It was the biggest plate and it took two complete days to get right. Next came the port bow plate, it again took two days. The remaining plates took three weeks to complete. The boat was looking like a boat now. Take a look at the photo section and you will see what I mean. It was the end of June 1998 and I was exhausted. I needed a rest so we went on holiday to Spain.

Round Bilge Plate Section

Next came the round bilge section and what a nightmare it was to be. Steel Kit had a ambitious design plan. They had spaced the frames at 750mm the frames were made from 8mm flat bar. Their plan was for me to hold up a 1500mm x 500mm plate section to the round bilge area, angle it to around 30 degrees then a helper would mark the top of the topside plate onto this flat plate. The plate would then be cut off at this line and tack welded to the topside plate. Then using the remaining length of plate as a lever the plate would then be bent round using chain and tackle and marked again at the hull bottom plate. This area would again be trimmed and then tacked welded to the bottom plating.

This was a good plan but had a minor flaw. The frames were set at 750mm intervals and the actual plate size was 500mm wide. Of course this would never work as the gap was too big and the frames were to far apart leaving a flat section on the bilge plate. Yet another big design flaw with the kit. After a week if photo taking and a lot of toing and froing Steel Kit finally admitted that it was their mistake. The action plan was for me to hire a van and load up all the round bilge plate and take it up to Steel Kit in Aberystwyth. There were 18 plates per side and the van must have been very overloaded on the trip. Steel Kit then in their wisdom decided to roll the plate at their plant which took a whole day. I was not very familiar with the rolling process which turned out to be a major disadvantage to me.

The rolled plate was loaded into the van and I drove back to Weston Super Mare. The next day Ann and I commenced the plating. We started on the port side at station one which was the datum frame. It took a whole day to measure up, mark, cut, and tack weld this first plate into place. We were both exhausted when we finished. It took the whole of the summer to complete tack welding both port and starboard bilge plates. What we soon realised was that the rolling of the plates was done on fixed radius rollers. The hull of course changes radius as you go to the bow it gets bigger the closer you get to the bow and smaller the closer you get to the transom. This proved to be one of the hardest obstacles to overcome and made the job go on forever.