Thats a very good point Ashley.

you can get up a good motion the longer a piece of wood is to sand, AND you have less undulations in the hull……

I like building big.

After a very nice day out in Liverpool and the Wirral today, and then back to Fleetwood with by daughter for lunch on very nice haddock and chips from the Ferry Cafe on the sea front at Fleetwood I decided that I should get my ass into gear and fill the gaps between the false keel and the keelson/bilges.

I used the Dolphin Glaze for the gaps and then some P38 to blend in the false keel to the prop tube tunnels.
and there are more than one job an old battery can do than just take up space in your workshop.

Now just waiting for it all to set and harden before sanding it down.

Now that the pieces of ply have been glued on to the deck line of the hull and allowed to set overnight, they have been trimmed all around the deck line to give an average of about 2.5 – 3inches in width so that when the gelcoat and resin/matting have been laid onto the plug it gives a flange on the mould to trim the moulding to.

Then I sealed any gaps between hull and flange on one side with Dolphin glaze………

just waiting now for it to set, whilst listening to the weekly thrash of the blades of an historic aircraft that does a curcuit of the bay close to me……….a Huey Cobra helicopter……….can hear it for miles around, but only ever seen it once lol.

This afternoon, I started by sanding off any filler to the hull/flange seem to give a nice clear joint ready for eventual laying up of the mould.

Then I put a block of obeche on to each end of the flange to screw the hull flange following the stem, keel and stern post of the boat, to screw the other flange to but that will become clearer onceI have finished the hull detailing ready for laying up the mould.

Then it was the start of the belting following the sheer of the deck that has already been determined not only by laying a moulding flange on to the top of the boats already laid deck but also by the frames that I worked too.

I had already tried a one piece base of 4mm thick and 22mm width, by cutting slots into the timber to aid bending……sadly it didn't work as the "planks" just broke at the weekest part.

And so I went down to Fleetwood docks where our old 41' Watson Ann Letitia Russell is lying uncovered.

Having looked at the belting on the old boat, I discovered that she had a belting made of some base stringers and then top stringers to form the depth and width of what becomes a rounded bulbous semi circle belting.

And so I did exactly the same using 3 strips of 4 x 4mm obeche and this gave the strips a much better chance of taking the curves of the hull without splitting or breaking at the tightest of curves. they were pinned to the hull with 12mm framing pins……….

Far easier that the first idea, and far less time wasted than soaking or steaming the planks too. that one side took me about an hour.

I also lapped the joints so that the join was not in the same place on each layer.

Well, its back from the surreal and the sadness of the week, to the model lifeboat plug.

And this afternoon i put the top piece of belting on to the first layer. It now has to be sanded to a semi round surface and the inner edges sanded to a quarter round.

Then it was on to the base plates for the keel skegs and the grab rails. These bases were simply made from 1mm photo/painting mounting card, glued to the hull using aliphatic resin and held in place with low tack masking tape…

These will all be treated with celulose sanding sealer once both sides are done and a final rub down with fine wire wool and then 180 grit wet and dry carburundum paper, USED DRY/!

next job was to make the flange for seperating the two halves of the mould along the full length of the boat, from stem to stern.

This needed some card to make templated from before transfering to 5mm ply and cutting and glueing the 3 pieces together.

Done!

warts and all, so people say……..

well! i made a big wart the last night as i was fixing the second set of base belting planks on to the starboard side….

probably not concentrating as i should, being blase' and big headed that i had done it so well on the port side, that when i went out last night to view it and all i can say or hear are the imortal words………."Wodney……….YOU are a plonker"

the levels of the two ends at the bow were fine and same distance from the flange…………..but, and it was a big BUT…….the levels at the stern were about 3mm off…….not much but very noticable, and having a trained eye……….it would have urked me every time i looked at it.

Something had to be done, and my first choice was to lift the stern off the boat, but it was stuck fast.

Think again, and without ripping it all off, probably damaging the hull whilst doing it, i decided to plane off some of the timber on the bottom of the belting and raise it at the top with more filler………and this was what i did.

Once both are sanded smooth and rounded off on the outer edge I think [ AND HOPE] that they will match up.

I have now completed the starboard side.

The belting has been filled to match up with the port side with some jiggery pokery, sanded and rounded off to the outer edge and ends.

The raised positions for the keel skeg and the grab handles have been fixed using mounting card, and the whole side sanded smooth.

Tonight I will attack the port side belting, rounding and filling to match the starboard side belting, and then left for finishing tomorrow.

My arms and shoulders now ache from all the sanding, so a nice hot bath and soak with some salts to ease the pain before starting again tomorrow, ready for an overall sanding and sealing.

3 coats of sanding sealer on the hull and one on the flange already….

So two coats more on both and then a rub down with wire wool of varying harshness, and hopefully by tonight I can start waxing the boat up ready for laying on the gelcoat and then fibre glass matting on the first side of the boat, ONCE I have fitted the flange to the boat .

And then into second gear….

I refitted the wooden blocks that anchor the flange at bow and stern, and screwed the flange to the blocks………not quite a perfect fit, and i have never ever managed a perfect fit, as there are also some gaps between the keelson, stem and stern posts and the flange. But what does one do about the gaps.

WELL, first of all, the flange has to be held in place so as not to wobble when laying up the first half of the mould., and at nearly 70 inches long on the outer dims, this 5mm flange wobbles in the middle.

Normally with a shorter hull, even up to 46" there isn't a great need to steady the centre as the next process holds a flange in place. However on this length I pinned both the object and obverse side with some fine veneering pins [about 0.5mm diameter] and these did the job holding the flange still and from wobbling. They will be removed from the object side before waxing up, and the holes which will be so small will be filled with the wax that will be added .

And so the job of securing the flange to the keel began, using at first lumps of nice new whitetac [blutack, black tac or any other combo will do] I stuck the flange and hull together every 20 mmm or so, and then between the lumps of whitetac I stuffeffed into and over the white tac lumps of nicely softened plasticine. [be carefull to use architects modelling plasticine, NOT childrens playdo stuff as the former will go hard after being left and will hold its possition.

Once that is done,………back to the object side and fill all the little gaps with rolled up lengths of plasticine, pressing it in to the gap, with either a chisel, or a thin spatula with a flat end [macdonalds coffee sterers are great for it with a flattened end.

And then its just a case of leaving overnight for it all to go hard, before you start waxing the boat and flange up……..simples!!!

I needed a drink after that, and all I had was a Tango, booohooo!!!

hi Tim…..

going from experience only in making such lifeboat moulds with the exact same hull markings as this one has.

they are so heavily waxed and with a pva release agent applied, i eventually insert my nylon wedges into the keel flange, plus the belting flange to release the mould at that point, and pull in a diagonally upwards and away from the plug,

the card strips are litterally 1mm thick and to be honest pose no problem in lifting the mould off in that way…….

I have plans in making a short video of the mould releasing once i have drilled the flange with 8mm holes for my coach bolts to hild the halves together when moulding the hulls, so hopefully it will show you how easily they come off with a slight ping and then a dash to catcj one half before it falls to the floor.

But never had a problem yet.

However……..theres always a first time. lol.