A great start to the building season

I don't know where you live but it's been a long cold winter here in Nova Scotia and so far the spring has been on the coolish side too. BUT.... in true maritime fashion  we will prevail. We have made a start back at Lena Blanche while finishing up a couple of last things on the 'little' 46 footer that we're building during the winter. She is called the Helen Florence for any who would like to look her up on Youtube.

So far we have fabricated the steering gear for LB. This will be run with hydraulic pistons. For the sake of saving some time we're not going to cast the mechanical steering pattern and all that goes with it at this time. That may happen in the future. The hydraulics will be great and it will work really well with the 2 steering stations that we have planned.

 The hydraulic pistons will be on either side of this apparatus in a push/pull fashion. This has been sent off to the galvanizing plant and should be back this week.

 Once we have it back it will all be put together and installed.

 Shaft from 1922 reduction gear. All taken apart and a new 3' shaft made. We are waiting on bearings to re assemble. I believe we found the last 2 bearing for this particular model in the world. Of my, thank heaven for Ebay.

 This is our rudder. Yes, it was on the vessel the last time you saw it. We decided to take some advice from a very learned friend and replace the wooden shaft with a steel one. That way, should we ever need to get it inspected, we will be able to remove the shaft from the upper side without disturbing the rudder and then reinstall. While we were making a new shaft for the rudder we also line bored the hole out with a pretty fierce cutter (seen in a pic below). Warren and I both had to hold the 1/2" drill to keep that puppy under control. We drilled a 6 5/8" hole through 6'  of the rudder port to receive a pvc sleeve. It fits perfectly with the steel shaft. Again, everything it at the galvanizing plant.

 These windows are a salvage from another yacht. The cross hatching is leaded and I think they're teak. Anyway, I thought they would add a touch of old world charm to our little schooner so I have been trying to sand off umpteen years of varnish without destroying the wood or the glass.

 These are hold downs for the planking on the 'little' 46 footer. Ours were quite a bit larger than these so we had to make new. (And they work like a charm)

 PVC pipe in the rudder port ready to be caulked and ready for the new shaft and rudder.

 6 5/8" cutter for rudder port. This cutter was custom made here in the shop for this job. It has teeth on both ends of it.

 This is the start of the new fuel tanks for LB. These will fit along the outside walls of the engine room in the vessel.They fit the shape of the hull and we are able to keep them quite low for extra stability.

 Doing a little grinding.

 I got a nifty new plasma cutter that has made making the rounded shapes so much easier

 I had to add a little bit of extra protection (from the sun mostly). I did have my blue rag all tucked in behind leathers for those who would be concerned.

 A closer look at the cutter.
So, it's been a busy couple of weeks. I feel like we've gotten more done so far this year than we did last year. I hope it keeps up.
Today someone stopped by with several hundred pounds of lead for the ballast. We're always looking for lead. So, if you know of any (cheap or free) please let us know. We will be melting and pouring it into ingots that fit in the bilge.
Thanks for continuing this journey with us.
Warren and Andrea