Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

[motojobobo]

Those zipper pulls look awesome!

[Giles]

I really like our zipper pulls, and decided to add similar pulls to the shock-cord tensioners, that will help us a lot getting the shock cord on and off the lacing mushrooms, especially when only one hand is free...

Production line is in full swing

[Bridger]

The boat will go faster with all those additional knots!

[Giles]

Long story short, Paula and I tried to pull the starboard rudder off the transom last Thursday. Rapid, unscheduled disassembly as American space PR people call it......

Damage to transom, rudder and rudder mount, and water coming into the engine room. Not in volume, but enough to be thankful for bilge pumps

Had her pulled out on Friday, first lift out of the day which I was very thankful for....

Today, Matt (a fishing mate) and I removed the rudder assembly to give the glass fibre guys access to the damage and the rudder assembly put in the car, so I can go from engineering firm to engineering firm trying to find someone who can unbend stainless steel, preferably in a hurry.

[tody]

I think 'ouch' is the appropriate comment to that. I‘m sure you‘ll fix it.

[seawolf]

Ouch, indeed.

[ROman]

Double ouch.

[Giles]

Old school light engineering company 5 miles from here, has the rudder assembly and say that fixing the bracket is easy, a little unsure about the rudder stock itself. Will disassemble and let me know. I'm taking that as a moderate win.

Meeting glass fibre guy at the boat at noon to look at work required to transom. He does all the work for David and Alex Thomson and was recommended by them, so names dropped I'm taking that as a win.

Feeling a lot more positive thatn I was at 07:00 this morning....

[endo]

@Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:

Feeling a lot more positive

good

[goosehd]

@Giles After seeing the stuff that Alex T brings back to them, they’re going to ask where the damage is

Glad things are coming together.

[Giles]

[Giles]

We need to cut a section out of the transom, the fibreglass layers have delaminated from the high density foam inboard and outboard (the hull construction from out to in is gelcoat/fibreglass/high density foam/fibreglass . Only a small area, but we need it cut out and rebuilt, otherwise the repair is structurally suspect. It's not an overly massive job, but does require time between process for stuff to cure etc. So we are looking at 2 weeks.........

I've heard from the machine shop, the bracket is an easy fix (just needs a shit ton of pressure and some straight edges), but the bend in the rudder stock (the bit that connects the rudder to the boat) is potentially problematical. They will try to straighten, but in the process may make it worse. So, I told them to go ahead, and if it is unsuccessful, we tum a new rudder stock and weld it to the rudder....

[jordanscollected]

@Giles If everyone took care of their shit like you do, there would be much less of a need for newly built boats.

[Giles]

BOOM.

The bit that I thought was going to be the most difficult part of this whole escapade, to fix, is done.

The rudder and rudder stock assembly is fixed and unbent. I can pick it up in the morning.

[Giles]

Something I forgot to mention. SAKURA is literally 300 yards away from the house on hardstanding (not SAKURA in the pic,because Google Earth did not fly over this weekend ), so I really am blessed.....

[endo]

added some useful additions

[Giles]

Hahahahahahaha

[Inorganic]

@Giles what is this knot called? I'd like to have a go at making some...

[Giles]

It's a Cobra knot:

I have also made a few of these which are great:

[Bridger]

@Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:

I have also made a few of these which are great:

I think Dita von Teese wears something similar.