21 Aug 2010 : It's crazy how time fly.
By : Stephane
It's crazy how time fly without really noticing once the routine is installed.
During the last month I didn't really publish anything as it was mostly repairing the pieces that the bolt broke when drive it in (Which I needed to disassemble the backbone to fix), and receiving friends/family that came to visit.
So what can I say really for the last month, I am almost done repairing the part to keep working on the backbone, this part being so much depressing I started working on different side project.
I started to melt down the lead we got from a bit everywhere and make some clear lead ingot with it, 1300 pounds for now and we need 4500. Meanwhile I started to build frames for the boat, several pairs are now done with White oak and will make the project go forward faster once the backbone will be done.
At my Birthday (31 july) I received some financing gift which we use to buy the material for the dingy. Since a week now I am working on building the dingy which begin to take shape and should be done in a week or so (Pictures will be online soon), We also bought the material to build the sail that will go with it, Catherine looking really for that as this is her part of the work for the dingy.
We are pushing into that project for now as we really need a boat to sail and take our mind off, pack the tent into it and doing coastal cruising and camping along the coast.
I am initiating Catherine to start publishing news on the website, you should have a mail from her soon.
Take care all.
05 Jun 2010 : I know I am late
By : Stephane
Hi All!
first of all sorry for the delay day's goes by without really seeing it and one day we wake up and it's been already a month.
A lot of things happen since our last update and I will try to put everything here well. Let's start with the cutting of our old boat which is done now, we kept the top part that we put on the ground filled with soil and plant our garden into it. So now we got a boat in the backyard, Catherine wanted to plant a tree in the middle to replace the mast.
The contessa was suppose to have a lead ballast, well that's what the builder said. This is also the reason why we cut it up, well after all that work was done and we removed the layer on top of the ballast to look it up it was cast Iron. So we mainly did that for nothing and need to find another 1.3 tons of lead for the other boat.
The extension of the garage is done, wood heater installed and we started to assemble backbone pieces. 3 pieces are already bolted together. 2 others pieces was almost done 2 days ago and when we drived the bolt thru it, it didn'T follow the pilot hole and get out right on the side of the keel timber. Now we got 3 pieces to repair until put them back up. I say that easily here but it was way not fun when I see it, but after a beer and some dreaming of being elsewhere we set to work to remove the bolt that was way into space and started to fix the problem.
Now that this part is removed, I gonna start by the other side of the boat and fix this slowly as it's some sketchy repair to do. Ah well we needed a bit of a challenge I guess!
Thats about it, we put a few pictures on :
http://picasaweb.google.ca/stephanejourney/Building#
A video about knocking the old boat down at :
http://www.peacefuljourney.ca/video.php
Other pictures coming in.
Enjoy!
19 Apr 2010 : It is done.
By : Stephane
Hello all!
It is done, our last gluing job was done!
After 1 week preparation to cut and glue this 20ft timber for the keel we finally finished all the gluing for the backbone part. The glue amount was perfectly calculated as we finished our last drop of it.
The bronze rod are lost in the UPS network, it's been 1 month soon that we bought it and still didn't received it. UPS working on it will see how that goes. So for now I will finish the extension of the garage (Part was also not deliver (Back order) to finish the roof). Gonna start the new week to finish it, install the wood stove and I already finished the electricity just need to connect it.
Now that we have everything to assemble the backbone, and will soon do it, we started to look for another batch of wood. We wanted black locust, but the company that supply us the backbone timber give us some real good quality and service. He said he got some really nice white oak that will suit us for that and we gonna go for it. Their website: http://www.forloversofwood.com/ A special Thanks to Andrew that take care of us there.
It's another big investment and having just done a loan we are checking if we wait a bit for it or load half of the credit card again for it. Will see, we are caculating everything. The batch of wood offer right now will cover all the frames, deck beam, bilge stringer and maybe even the rudder. So as you see this order will cover most of the wood for the rest of the boat. Shipping being expensive better to have it all ship in one shot.
I am putting more pictures online slowly, check by the website :www.peacefuljourney.ca or directly to the gallery at : http://picasaweb.google.ca/stephanejourney/Building#
Hope everything is good for all of you.
Stéphane & Catherine.
PS: I got some bug with a recent video I have done of our last crossing. I should be able to fix that bug soon, as soon my head can empty to sit and do it.
02 Apr 2010 : April fool.
By : Stephane
Hello All.
Well I guess we encounter a difference in culture today.
I wanted to let you all know that my e-mail about the boat burning was an April fools joke.
What I thought will be a joke that everybody will figure out with the date, turn out to be taken seriously by everyone.
But I would say I won't appologize, because it was nice to have news from you and see that you care. It's been 6 months now that my only "friends" are you guys and Catherine's family and even if I don't write often I really love having news from your guys.
Sorry if offence taken, I will try to do better next year!
Stéphane & Catherine
Today picture: http://picasaweb.google.ca/stephanejourney/Building#5455267336276519074
The dark on the wood is only sap, which will close shut at the launching.
01 Apr 2010 : Sad, Sad News.
By : Stephane
Hello All,
it's quite hard to say this.
The temporary wood heater we have put for the extension made the wood dust to caught in fire.
Yesterday at around 18h fireman was here to help us out. Thanksfully most of our "home" is alright but 8 pieces out of 9 of the backbone are badly damage. We didn'T decided what to do yet, but I guess this will be the end of the project for a little bit for lack of fund.
I keep you guys updated.
10 Mar 2010 : Just keep swimming
By : Stephane
Good day all,
I hope you are all doing great.
Here life is quite changing in the last weeks. Lack of fund slow us down a bit as we run out of glue, during that time I started to do bronze pattern for later on the boat.
Now that we got glue again, the stem knee is almost done. This became the smallest and more expensive part of the boat! It's a part with a good curve, so we can't do it in a straight grained piece of wood, we then laminated lot's of 1/4" strip of wood on top of each other bending them to the curve. It take us 3 times the amount of wood to make the strip (The thickness of the blade remove wood, + planning remove wood) and almost 1 gallon of expensive glue. I hope to don't see this piece fail later in the boat as this will really make us mad....
We decided to buy money from the bank too (I prefer the term buy instead of borrow, as you pay a lot to have it....) to speed up the process. This way we can buy all needed to finish the backbone and the frames, which will give us a break until the planking.
Catherine started to take pictures again ... Soon we will start to assemble the pieces which will be nice pictures to take.
Have fun.
20 Jan 2010 : 2 more.
By : Stephane
Hello All,
first of all a big thanks to Richard & Helen Weston for their nice donation/gift for Christmas/New Year it is greatly appreciate and will serve to buy the rivets & glue for the frames of the boat.
I have put a new page on line showing which part I am working on and which one are done which I think can interest some of you at : http://www.peacefuljourney.ca/progress.php
2 other pieces are done on the boat, one of the big one too named the "gripe" which is show in progress (Still some finishing to on it) on the link above. I do not have put pictures online as for me it is all the same, planning and gluing pieces you see one and you have seen them all, but that's me and I guess from a outside point of view it's different. So I am asking you, if there is something you want to see or how do I do something and I will take a video/picture for you, just tell me!
Next week I will have some helper coming and we gonna cut the keel timber, 18ft long this gonna be some interesting time doing it on the band saw. We also run out of that expensive glue for the backbone which we will probably next week or 2 as this is not a cheap adhesive. Meanwhile I will be making more patterns for the boat out of the lofting done 2 or 3 months ago.
We have done the lofting in what will be the "kitchen" in a "In building progress" house, now we have a deadline beginning of march to remove the lofting from there and make all the patterns before that...
Will see how that turn out!
Take care all & Have fun!
Stephane & Catherine.
PS: I received sometime questions about my strange English, it's because I am a native French speaker we write in English because most of our "International" friends speak all a bit of this language.
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