Finishing off the bulwarks

Now that the anchor davits are in place, the bulwarks are being finished off.

Under the bow spirit

Following the completion of the required re-work, the area under the bow-spirit in now under construction.  Bollards have been fashioned out of 5x5 ramin, painted and installed in place.  The pre-cut plywood was also installed and painted.

The only reason these parts were painted was because they were made out of different types of wood and had to match.  In general, I tend to prefer having wood stained and/or varnished.

Planning the area under the bow spirit

When planning the area under the bow spirit, it soon became obvious that something was not right.

Despite following the plans to 0.05mm tolerance, the anchor davit required re-positioning 6mm closer to the bow.  This meant re building the effected bulwarks, including linings.  The anchor davits also had to be slightly shortened.  Frustration set in.

After checking and re-checking that this re-work could not be avoided, it became clear this was a bullet that had to be bitten.

Around 4 hours were spent re-doing this work, but at the end I was happy with the result and glad I decided to go ahead.

Anchor davits

Anchor davits require precision work, so most of the time was spent planning.  Now the davits are almost complete.

Cleats have also been painted as I intend finishing off the whole part before installing on ship.

More work on the upper part

Now that the upper deck planking is complete, another set of pre-cut bulwarks have been installed.  The bulwarks have also been lined on the inside in the same material used to line the outside.

The plywood covering the transom is now in place too.  All the metal work at the stern will, in some way, be attached to this part of the ship.  This makes correct positioning very important.

Upper deck complete

The upper deck is now complete and being varnished.   Carriages on the lower deck have been covered to reduce risk of spoiling them while painting.

When happy with the results,  the lower deck will be sealed off with paper and masking tape and work on the exterior of the ship will continue.

Upper deck planking

Work on planking is now in progress.  I am following the same pattern used on the lower deck (every 3).  Caulking is emulated by pre-lining the edges of each plank with a permanent marker and gluing each 9cm plank with PVA glue.

Decking in-situ is requires some more patience, but should not prove to be a hurdle I cannot overcome.

Some re-work was required as the planking on the front and back parts of the deck, separated by  the large hole in the middle of the deck, did not match perfectly.  Better re-do it now than repent forever.