A very sad day

A very sad day today, the Aldeburgh Boatyard caught fire this morning and is a total loss. No one was injured but four boats were lost together with archive material that cannot be replaced. I will never forget working at the old yard at weekends and holidays or Peter's patience in teaching me how to repair boats. I hope he has the determination to rebuild and carry on.

On a more cheerful note 3434 is as finished as she will be this year. Despite a major disagreement with a new slot gasket, mkII worked and we raced on Saturday. Not Baggy T weather but still great to be on the water.

I didn't like the navy blue colour scheme, so after a few hours in the garage and she is now a pleasing shade of red. Hoping for more wind this weekend.

I'm still waiting for Bobtail's new sails to be finished and will then sort out her rig ready for a late spring launching party.

That time of the year...

Bobtail has moved next door for a couple of weeks so I can get her younger sister ready to go racing.

This year we have a different boat. N3232 has been replaced with N3434 the last Baggy T to be

built. Lots to do but nothing too drastic unless I replace the thwart which I think is in the wrong place....

A couple of pictures showing how the boats have evolved over 50 years.

N3434 is 12 years old and is out of date when compared to the latest generation of boats.....

Mast repairs

I have been putting this of for ages for 3 good reasons. Firstly I wasn't sure what to do. Secondly I hadn't got any suitable timber. Thirdly I thought it would be difficult. All the more difficult as the mast is too long to fit in the garage.

The solution to problem number 2 was obviously solved at the Boat Yard. A section of broken Loch Long mast was cut to length and then cut in half.

After many hours thinking about how to fix the mast and nothing else to do I decided to get on with it. The top section of Bobtails mast removed to expose sound timber and a scarf cut to each side face. The replacement port section was then cut to match and glued in place followed by cutting out the bolt rope groove and the hollow core for the main halyard.

The starboard side was then added with some rope packers wrapped in thin plastic (good idea Tim) to prevent any excess epoxy blocking the rebates and stop them being bonded in place. At this point things looked a bit crude with a large block of scrap wood stuck to the top of the mast.

About an hours work with a sharp plane and some 60 grit paper and things look much better. One scarf is longer than the other but they fit and that's good enough for me. All that is left to do is strip and varnish the rest of the stick.

The old top of the mast was so soft that a previous owned had used a pair of jubilee clips to hold the two halves together and prevent the halyard sheeve from falling out. Crude but effective for a while.