Author: Mark Austen

The aim of the work on Shoal Waters today is to get as much of the plywood template for the centerplate case side finished. It was a cold morning today, so I delayed getting started until about 09:30, not because it warmed up any but rather because I hate working in the cold!

First on the list was the shaping of the top runner extension and as you can see from the above photo, it came out quite well. I could have used a small hand plane for this, but I’m not that good with a plane so I used the belt sander to do the work. Much less chance of me messing it up that way.

However, as I was sanding the new piece I noticed that the old piece had some rot. You can see it here. It’s not that deep and seems to be where the wood has not been painted or varnished so the water has been allowed to penetrate and stay. This is the bottom of the runner.

There are several other spots along the underside of the runner showing signs of rot so once I have completed the tasks that require the runner I’ll take in indoors and soak the rotten parts with the Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer, or CPES, that was formulated specifically for this kind of situation. I took the tins of the epoxy inside straight away as the temperature need to be higher than 10 Celsius, even for the cold weather formula, and it’s a lot lower than that outside today.

The template was put into position with some block on the inside of the slot to stop the template from falling down and the top runner clamped into position. You can see the extension looking out from the inside.

From the outside and above you can see that it extends just a little past the end of the aft block giving me a little wiggle room. This will be shaped to the original form once the case is ready to be installed.

Notice that there is a gap between the template and the block of about 2mm. The original plywood seems to have been 8mm thick and although I could have bought that for the replacement, the inside of the case will be coated with neat epoxy, then a layer of 300g glass mat, then another layer of epoxy and finally a layer of epoxy containing graphite powder. All this is likely to be around 2mm thick so that gap should disappear with the finished case side.

The inside blocks served their purpose well but I did find that the sides of the slot are not parallel and it is wider at the center than at the ends. Not a problem, just that when I cut the blocks to wedge the case side in place after gluing, I need to remember that the slot width varies and cut the blocks accordingly.

With the top runner now clamped in the correct position I was able to mark the top and bottom of the runner into the template. The template will be cut back to the top line and the bottom line will be used for making the outer template.

The two lines can be seen here with the “real” top line being the left line close to the top, not the right hand one.

Several small blocks were cut to match the width and height of the bottom runner, the dimensions of which I took from the runner in Naiad. One block was used to pencil in the line that will be the bottom of the outer template by putting the pencil on the top of the block, both against the plywood and running the block along the keel timber.

The blocks were subsequently fixed to the template with hot glue. Glue was applied to the correct face of the block, the block was placed on the keel and the glued face pressed against the template.

No errors so far and a good place to stop for lunch.

After lunch and a cup of tea, and since I was inside in the warm, I decided that they next task would be the rot in the top runner.

I use two syringes to measure small quantities of the epoxy components and you can see that I’ve labelled them to avoid having the syringes epoxied shut by getting them the wrong way around.

I mixed up 20 ml of CPES, more than enough for this job, but better too much than too little, and flooded the rotted wood with the mixture. Once the rotten areas stopped absorbing the epoxy I applied the remainder to any bare wood so as not to waste the epoxy. this stuff isn’t cheap. The runner was carefully placed on the Rayburn. At this temperature the epoxy should be tacky in an hour and cured in 24.

Now for the cardboard template for the outer layer of the centerplate side. That’s a mouthful !

I drew straight lines on the plywood template at each block up to the line that marked the bottom of the top runner, measured the distance from the block to that line and write the value on the block.

I reused the cardboard inner template since it already has the bottom curve and I’m not going to need it for anything else. Having clamped this into position I drew straight lines from the blocks, measured up the values marked on the block and made a mark on the cardboard. Repeat for all the blocks.

Join up the marks and cut along the line.

So far so good. No mistakes yet.

Now offer it up to the plywood template and check that the top edge matches the line drawn on the plywood. It did, so press on.

Now I need an extension cardboard piece to match the aft block. First cut this to the line of the keel.

Then use the bottom runner blocks to mark where the bottom should be and cut away the excess and glue it to the rest of the outer template.

Still no mistakes.

Now for the other end.This just needed a piece to fill in as shown above, nothing difficult about this part.

Still no mistakes. I’m beginning to get that “waiting for the other shoe to drop” feeling.

While the plywood template is clamped in position I pushed a pencil through the pivot bolt hole in the other case side to mark the correct position on the starboard side and drilled a 10 mm hole in the template. Having done this there is no reason to leave the port side of the case in place and I can remove it in due course.

Not really looking forward to it, well not the tricky end bits, but there’s nothing to stop me from doing this task now.

Finally, for this sprint, I cut the top of the plywood template off to the marked line.

Still no errors but I cannot do any more on this as the next bit needs the top runner and the epoxy on that isn’t cured yet.

so…

Time for a cup of tea.

The main task for today is to cut out the plywood template for the inner case side. All but the bottom of the template are straight lines and are thus easy to deal with but the curved bottom is a little more difficult to cut. I cut all the easy straight edges which then left me with a fairly long piece of plywood that I cut on the bandsaw.

This is the result. But this is not the finish of the plywood template, just the first stage of a number of stages.

I’ve cut the top edge about 10mm too large since I’m not entirely sure where the top will be and won’t know until the top runner has been extended replacing the part that had to be cut off as it was screwed to the aft block from the inside the case and thus inaccessible. Once the extension of the top batten is done I’ll be able to clamp the runner in the correct place for and aft and that will give me the top line on the template and I’ll be able to mark and cut the template to the correct shape.

Then it was a case to offer up the template, see where it doesn’t fit, mark the adjustments, take the template back into the workshop, make the adjustments, rinse and repeat until the template fits.

This is made more difficult as the template is a little floppy and keeps on falling off the keel slot lip. Still, only the front end of the template needed to be adjusted due to my not being able to get a clean edge with a chisel because of the access restrictions.

Time for a cup of tea.

Some time later…

The edges of the top runner on each side of the case are not parallel, so my next task was to find a piece of old Shoal Waters Mahogany from which to cut the piece that will extend the top runner back to its original length. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds as most of the offcuts had saw cut, nails, old screws and splits and sometimes all at once.

After about an hour of careful measurement, marking, cutting and shaping I had a suitably shaped piece for the extension.

This is where it needs to go and once I have glued the pieces together I’ll round over the corners on the outside of the extended bit to match the old part.

The pieces, glue and cramps were brought inside as it is now late afternoon and the temperature is dropping now that the sun is setting.

In order to give the glue the best change to cure the higher temperature indoors is needed. Here you can see that I have applied the glue to ends but not yet put them together. This is because the parts of the piece to be glued are end grain and if you just glue them together directly, the joint is not very good as the grain wicks away the glue. The recommended procedure is to apply a thin layer of glue to each surface and then wait 10-15 minutes for the glue to be absorbed into the grain. Then apply some more glue to each surface and clamp the two surfaces together firmly.

Fifteen minutes or so later the joint has been assembled and clamped. There is a straight edge clamped to one side of the joint to hold the pieces in the correct position and baking paper used to stop the glue from sticking the straight edge to the work piece.

I’ll leave this for a few hours, remove the cramps and then move the workpiece close to the Rayburn for the night.

The old case side came out in pieces, so it is very interesting to see just how big the side of the centerplate case is when it is in one piece. This is not the end of the story as the outer layer of the case side extends further aft by about 200mm, so the complete side will be quite long. This is not that surprising when you consider that Shoal Waters’ centerplate is 5′ long or 1,524mm. Naiad’s plate is longer still.

Shoal Waters’ plate compared to the template I made of Naiad’s plate. Not sure why they are different. I wonder if Shoal Waters’ plate was cut down or originally that size?

Putting Naiad’s plate onto the case template in approximately the correct position shows that the case is only just large enough for the plate.

The next tasks on the list to complete the plywood templates are:

• Shape the extension of the top runner and use it to mark the correct top edge of the inner template.
• Make some spacers and hot glue them to the template such that they are inside the slot.
• Clamp the template in place.
• Cut some short pieces the same width and height as the bottom runner and fix to inner template (hot glue then screw).
• Mark the location of the pivot bolt hole.
• Drill the pivot bolt hole and check that the hole is correct.
• Cut a cardboard template for the outer piece of the case side.
• Cut a plywood template from the cardboard template.
• Clamp the inner template in position and adjust the outer template to fit.
• Drill the pivot bolt hole through the outer template.

Sounds like quite a lot, but , if nothing goes wrong, I should be able to complete that lot in a day. We will see.

Time for a cup of tea.

It is a dreary, wet and slightly cold day today, not at all conducive to doing anything outside. On the good side, there is no wind ! Still, I dragged myself out to the boat during a tea break and carried out a couple of quick tasks. The first was to cut out a new cardboard template piece and glue it to the bigger template.

Here is the result and as you can see, the template now ends in the expected point.

The second task was to select a chunk of removed Mahogany to use to “repair” the top batten that had to be cut short in order to remove it. This chunk will be used for both sides of the new case.

To be fair, this was not a task that I expected to do today, although it is on my list of tasks, but I tripped over the block of wood during today’s first task which reminded me that it needed to be done.

The third task was to slip a piece of 6mm marine plywood into the slot in the keel and see how much of the bottom lip protrudes. The lip seems to be about 7mm, although it is not easy to measure and thus it does stick out past the 6mm plywood. However, this is good news as I intend to coat the inside of the case with neat epoxy, then 300g biaxial fibreglass cloth, then another layer of neat epoxy and finally a layer of epoxy mixed with graphite powder. I may even apply a coat or two of antifoul after that, I’m not sure about that yet.

All this extra coating on the inside of the case will probably pad it out so that the lip no longer protrudes. This is good news since it means that I do not have to worry about the case sides being too thick, which would be the case if the lip were just 6mm wide.

Time for a cup of tea.

I gave myself an easy day yesterday as I find that working over the weekend without a break seems to make me more tired during the week. That isn’t to say that I did nothing on the Shoal Waters project, just no physical work.

But, I resolved to get the part of the template task that is bugging me fixed.

It’s this part. The bit at the bottom corner of the template really should be pointed, but it’s that shape now as I’ve not been able to get the last pieces of the original plywood out. It’s in an awkward position and one in which the rest of the boat restricts how far I can use a chisel. The only direction that I can get a blade in further than I have now is from the front of the pointed end but kneeling on the cockpit trying to work under the bridge deck.

In the end I just gritted my teeth and just scraped away at the last bit of glue and plywood until I got it all out. Took about an hour and frankly, this was the hardest part of the work I’ve done so far. Of course, keeping my right leg far enough away from the business end of the sharp chisel doesn’t make it any easier, but I have no wish to stab myself in the thigh with a sharp pointy thing.

And here’s the result. You can see the lip at the bottom of the slot and the aft block and the 1/4″ groove in the keel and the block.

Here is is from a slightly different angle.

And finally a close up of the pointed bit, albeit a little out of focus.

I’ll still need to tidy that up a bit with sandpaper but now that the old plywood has been removed that will not be quite so difficult. I’ll wrap a strip of sandpaper around a 6mm piece of plywood and run it into the slot a few times. It doesn’t have to be perfect as it’s going to be slathered in a marine adhesive, but it needs to be better than it is now.

Oddly, the other side should be a little easier since the other side of the case will have been removed by then, so the access will be a little easier. that and the fact that I know where the end of the pointy bit is, so I won’t be guessing how far in the slot reaches.

The last last if the tea break was to measure the pivot bolt as that needs to be replaced. This measured at 3/8″ in diameter and 4″ in length.

Time for a cup of tea.

The next part of the repairs requires me to construct a template for the sides of the centreplate case case, which sounds easy enough but is a little more complex that you would think.

There are two templates to be made, one for the inner layer and another for the outer. Because the keel timber is curved, the templates must first be made from cardboard and checked before being used to create plywood templates from cheap 6mm plywood. These are then used to check the fit and to make any adjustment required. Once those are correct they may be used to cut out the marine plywood sides.

So, to start with, the template for the inner layer as the one for the outer layer cannot be done until the cheap plywood template is completed for the inner. Now, there are two tricky bits for the inner template, the ends since they recess into the fore and aft blocks.

I won’t bore you with the details for making these, suffice it to say that since it was nearly impossible to measure the required shape, I have to use trial and error until I had two pieces that gave me the correct shape for the ends. Lots of trial and error, I suppose it took around eight attempts to get a good fit.

When the marine plywood arrived from Robbins Timber, it was covered with two pieces of cardboard, each the size of a full sheet of ply. I kept these for making templates. A piece that was too large was cut out, seen above.

This had recesses cut out to fit over the supports on the outside of the keel and then clamped into place.

The recesses were cut so that a significant portion of the cardboard protruded through the hull as you can see above. I drew a line with a black marker pen against the bottom of the keel.

And removed the cardboard from the boat. Not very elegant but good enough.

I used some panel pins and a batten to give me a fair curve and drew that.

Like this. All I had to do now was to cut along this line which I did using a good pair of scissors.

That’s the bottom of the template done. Now for the top. The cardboard was clamped back in the slot but with the bottom curve resting on the lip of the keel slot. The top edge was then drawn with the marker and the whole thing returned to the workshop for cutting out.

The top batten is quite beaten up in places, so the line is a bit wonky, but it is supposed to be three straight lines and that was easy to cut, this time using a suitable straight edge and a utility knife.

Looks good. So far nothing has gone wrong, so I decided it was time to take a break before getting the ends fixed to the centre part.

All this climbing in and out of the boat gets tiring.

Time for a cup of tea.

Some time later…

Having had a break, I found that I was beginning to lose the light, so I decided that once I had the ends fitted to the template, I’d call it a day for this part of the template task.

This is the first attempt. I’d put all three parts into position and c;amped them where I could, then marked where each one fitted. Then it was out with the hot glue gun and fix them all together.

What would be do without Hot Glue?

Once the glue had set I took the template back into the boat and dry fitted it.

It didn’t quite fit, but here I had the first mistake of the day and cut the wrong bits off!

The fix for the front end.

And the fix for the aft end.

At this point the template fitted, or as well as a floppy piece of cardboard can but I was starting to make mistakes. So, despite being still light enough to do more, I called it a day.

The cutting and fitting of the plywood template can wait.

Time for a cup of tea.

One of the good points about the way in which Charles Stock build the interior of Shoal Waters is that he slapped Mendix (or Mendex) over just about everything. That would be the equivalent of using thickened epoxy today with the exception that the stuff he used doesn’t appear to be susceptible to heat, unlike epoxy. So, unlike epoxy, you can’t make this stuff soft with a heat gun and scrape it off.

One of the bad things about the way in which Charles Stock build the interior of Shoal Waters is that he slapped Mendix (or Mendex) over just about everything. The only way to dismantle things done this way is to cut them out.

So far, the removal of starboard side of the centreplate case has removed parts that needed to be removed anyway, but has meant cutting through something that I would have preferred to not cut.

That’s the bulkhead that is shown here in the righthand side of the case.

This is what it looks like now. I’ve kept the piece that has been removed and I’ll epoxy it back in place when the new case has been installed. Although I may put in a new one that is the same as the height of the one on the port side. This bulkhead it supposed to stop the case from moving under the stress of the plate when sailing. The plate is 1.2m long outside the hull when lowered and that produces a lot of sideways force on the case due to leverage and I’m not sure that the small bulkhead Charles used is really enough.

The fairly careful removal is about to end. The aft end of the centreplate case protrudes into the cockpit and the woodwork around the case has to be cut out and removed. I have already made a start with a single “incision” to show the limit of the cut but now it is time to finish the job.

No finesse in this part of the removal, there are too many hidden screws to make this an easy job, so I just went at it regardless. Mind you, I didn’t cut of huge pieces at once, preferring to cut things away small chunks at a time.

First break, make the replacement portlights.

I remove one of the old lights, scraped away the old sealant, drilled bolts holes through the old screw holes and put one of the replacement lights in place. I don’t have the correct bolts for this job, they are on order, so I just used some bolts that are too long to check how it looks.

The USB charging ports of the charge controller only supply 500mA total and if you try to take more than that, it takes away power from the controller itself and that stops working. So I bought some blanking plugs.

I’ll probably fix these in using some hot glue the they don’t fall out. There’s no reason to use these sockets as I’ve wired in eight others that will supply s good amount of power.

Back to the cantreplate case. I cut away the top cover to reveal the top of the aft end of the case. It came away quite cleanly and you can see the soft plywood of the case where it is inset into the aft block.

Then it was more work on the sides. This lump is the plywood added by Charles and has to come off.

A while later and that was removed and I could see the glue line where the plywood of the side is glued to the aft block. I’ll need to tidy this up and there’s still a lot of the plywood left and my chisel work is not that good, so I’ll resort to using a sander for that bit. But this does show clearly where the plywood ends.

Finally, for today, I remove the supporting battens back to the keel. Well, almost. The one added by Charles is okay, but the original one is very wet. Not rotten, just soaked up a lot of water. I’ll let that dry for a bit and then sand the rest of this and the paint back to the top of the keel. I’ll probably need to take this away completely as I don’t know how far the wet wood goes.

This is the other end of the battens, so not a lot to remove and since the wood is very wet, it is probably a good idea to remove it and replace it with new wood. It will be interesting to see how the keel is under the batten. It has been glued in place so the water that was soaked up by the batten probably hasn’t affected the keel…I hope!

That’s the end of the centreplate case work for today, although not the end of the tasks for the day. There’s not going to be enough light to continue the case removal after I finish work but enough to do a few more port lights.

So, here’s the process. Select the light to be replaced.

Remove the screws. Notice that the old light doesn’t fall down as there is some sealant between the perspex and the cabin side.

Pretty good stuff, but it has to be scraped off.

Interestingly, once the sealant has been removed you can see that this light has already been replaced three times before. There are the screw holes for the light just removed, two sets of screw holes that have been filled in and the remains of some screws that have been sanded down flush with the wood. So that means that this new light is the fifth one !

Then it’s drill the holes and put the light in with temporary bolts.

I managed to get two more done but the light was fading fast and so was the temperature. Clear sky, Winter and once the sun sets the temperature plummets.

Still, a fair bit done during coffee and lunch breaks.

Time for a cup of tea.

Have you ever had one of those light-bulb moments? You know, where something suddenly dawns on you seeming without any lead up or introduction. I had one this afternoon whilst I was continuing the work on removing the centreplate case on Shoal Waters and doing very well.

This is a bit of a long post as I took a shed load of photos, but I’m not sorry about that. What do the youngsters says these days? Oh yes…

Sorry, not sorry.

I’d spent a few moments making a portlight template on the laser cutter and checking the fit.

This was the light I used as a test since it is not quite round as you can see from the top right. The perspex has been cut away slightly so that the light fits by the navigation light. I’ve just noticed that you can see the cabin light on side. I’d been using that to sweep up some rubbish and forgot to turn it off.

I made the template a fraction smaller so that the cutaway was not required and tested the fit. Good enough and so I moved on to the centreplate case.

All was going very well and I found that there is one place that brass screws were not used in Shoal Waters as you can see from the photo. Annoying to find and excavate but the screws all came out easily once the surrounding wood was removed.

All was still going very well and I decided to take a photo of the support under the bridge deck so that I know how to put it back again once the rebuild is under way.

Likewise the port side as this has a stop screwed into the top of the case to prevent the block and tackle used to raise and lower the centreplate from pulling the upright out.

Then I remove the starboard upright and that is when the light bulb went on.

Up to this point I had decided that the original case was two layers of plywood laminated together but this showed me that I was wrong about that. You see, the upright was set into the case through the outer layer of plywood.

This is a closer look. And the light-bulb moment was that Charles would not have cut away one layer of plywood on the case to inset this upright, he would have just put it out the outside. That in turn meant that the entire outer layer of plywood was not original but put there by Charles when he first constructed Shoal Waters back in 1963. Looking at the construction of the cabin shows quite clearly that this outer layer of plywood was put on first, apart from where the bridgedeck support uprights were placed. All the other parts of the cabin that are fixed to the centreplate case attach to the outer layer of plywood and are not inset.

So why is this shocking? Quite simply:

If Charles had not constructed Shoal Waters in this way sometime in the last 20 years she would have sunk and quite possibly whilst under sail.

A bold claim, I hear you say but isn’t that just supposition? Let me show you what I mean.

It didn’t take long to clear away all the beading and other centreplate supports from the top of the case and to then cut the side of the case away.

Like this. A very satisfying moment but I need to show you a closer look at one part of the side removed.

This is the inside face of the aft part of the case side with the top to the left. As you can see, someone has tried a repair job at sometime during Shoal Waters’ life, that yellow gunk looks like epoxy. Still, the part of interest is the smooth area at the top left.

This bit here. That smooth bit is the inside face of the outer layer of plywood.

That is to say that the entire inner layer of plywood, the one originally build by Fairy, in this area has gone.

The rest is in pretty poor shape as well and there may be other areas of the case where the inner layer has completely disintegrated. If this is the only part then when the boat is upright, this is out of the water. but would have been under water when heeled over, that is when sailing.

If the original layer is missing in other places that are underwater all the time, then it is likely that Shoal Waters would have sunk on her mooring.

But, I hear you say, that’s all well and good but how can you tell that the outer layer is not original. Just finding one part where a support has been inset doesn’t mean that the outer layer wasn’t original.

Well, I can’t say 100% that it is not original, but I can say to 99.999% and that is because I own Naiad, a Shoal Waters look-alike built from a Fairey Falcon by yours truly. The hull dates from the same year as Shoal Waters.

So I hopped into Naiad’s cabin armed with vernier calipers.

Here is the width of the top of the centreplate case in Naiad to the outside of the plywood from the top. Just over 31mm

Now, using the proddy end of the calipers I’ll measure the width of the top to the outside of the case.

Like this.

The result is just over 31mm.

So, Naiad, a Fairey Falcon hull built in the same year as Shoal Waters has a single layer of plywood for the centreplate case sides.

Now look at a photo of Naiad’s centreplate case before the cabin was built. The side of the case is unbroken from the tip of the case back to the aft of the case, although you can only see the front part in this photo.

Now look at that part close up in Shoal Waters on the port side where I’ve not removed anything yet.

That is the front edge of the second layer or plywood which stops just behind the shaped part where the mast step goes. It’s not easy to see in this photo due to the lighting, but it is there. All this is pretty conclusive to me.

So, having convinced myself that Charles’ original construction choices prevented a disaster, I carried on.

I removed the layer of plywood that was inset into the hull using a sharp chisel. This after part of the plywood came away but not as easily as first part had. The first part practically fell off and made me wonder if it has ever been glued to the hull or whether the prolonged water saturation had dissolved the glue. This part of the plywood was quite clearly glued in place but even so, the glue line broke very easily without damaging the keel timber.

Looking aft in the slot I can see the back of the case but this slopes away aft and is outside the cabin so I’ll need to partially dismantle the cockpit to get the last part out.

I started by making an incision on the outside where two pieces of wood had been joined.

Then looking out from the inside I could see the daylight through the cut, so I know where I’ll be to be cutting.

I did this bit before taking the side of the case off as I thought I might be able to get it all in one go, that isn’t going to be easy so I just took the side off and I’ll work on the remaining piece of the case another day.

So, a very satisfying day but one that is a little bit shocking at the same time.

Time for a cup of tea.

Now that I have enough of the starboard side of the centreplate case removed to see how to remove the rest, I need to add some more support under the keel. The case itself adds significant strength to the keel and removing it will remove that strength. The keel is probably strong enough to support my weight once the case it completely removed, but there’s no sense in relying on “probably” when it is a simple job to add a couple of additional supports under the keel.

So I’ve put a sturdy support under the keel mod-way between the two trailer supports, more or less.

That should do the trick nicely and change the probably to certainly.

Time for a cup of tea.

Now that there is light in the cabin I can continue the removal of the starboard side of the centreplate case and, as the title of this post suggests, I have yet to locate the bottom of the plywood side.

I widened the cut through the base of the case and cut down to a point just above the part that I know is the top of the keel. At this point the plywood is still visible on the inside of the case but it is not securely attached to the keel. Using a flat-bladed screwdriver I was able to prise the plywood of away from the keel and break it off. It is still damp, although not wet any more, and quite easily snapped.

Looking down the slot I can see that the plywood does not go right down to the bottom of the keel, which makes sense since this would make the edge of the plywood touch the water and that would in turn soak up the water, something to be avoided at all costs. So the builders of the hull cut a long and deep recess into the sides of the slot leaving about 6mm of the keel timber intact to form a barrier. Presumably it also forms an edge to locate the case properly.

So, I now have the top of the keel timber and I have the bottom of the side of the case. This means that I can cut away large chunks of the side knowing that I’m not cutting into parts of the boat that I should be leaving intact.

Mind, you, there are screws holding the side of the case down to the keep, so I’ll need to try and avoid cutting those. They appear to be stainless steel and my multi-tool won’t cut through that.

These are the piece of the plywood I removed from inside the keel timber. You can also see from this photo just how effective the cabin light is now that it is installed. This work would have been difficult without it.

The downside of the work is that Charles used something he called Mendix or Mendex spread liberally to cover any gaps in his ‘Clodhopper Carpentry’. I’ve not been able to find out what this substance is, but I can tell you that it is very tough and when cut produces a fine, choking power so I have to wear a breathing mask to avoid breathing this fine dust into my lungs. That means that I need to take regular breaks in the cutting work as this restricts your breathing. Besides that the dust gets everywhere and a break every now and then is needed to brush the dust of and clear up the mess in the cabin.

I usually make a cup of tea (no surprise there) and then resume work once I’ve finished the cup.

Some time later…

This represents about an hour’s work, about all I can do in one stretch. I’m just not used to crouching down into a small ball and then working on something sideways. I need to take a break after an hour. So I need to find some small tasks that take about an hour to carry out in a standing position and do those between hour long sessions cutting away the case side.

So that’s it for today.

Time for a cup of tea.