So when do you get it right?

[apindrans]

I've been working on Corio Vertue some time now. Initially it took me while to get used to being brutal about cutting out great chunks of rotted timmber and meticuously replacing with new, but now I've become a bit over confident with my capabilities and have started to really stuff things up.

The cockpit floor had some rot, so after some major surgery i removed it and fabricated a replacement piece. In the process I had to remove some of the supports so the cockpit floor was 'hanging' from one corner. Returning from my workbench I jumped into the cockpit, and it was only when I was in mid flight that I realised what was about to happen when I landed. A relatively minor repair had suddenly escalated into a major cockpit sole re-build.

So how do you guys get into the groove with all this restoration work so it's not one step forward and two back? I'm a desk jockey for 5 days a week and a boat restorer/shipwright for one or two.

[ssor]

That's called hard won experience! :D

[seayou77]

A moaning chair! One of the best bits, in WBs' how to build a boat; Spend time looking at project. What you've got are the classic symptons of Tear-ittus will self correct in time.
Probably for the best, now that that is outa the way you can address the hard to reach bits underneath. Good luck! If its worth doin' it's worth doin right.
When you're done with the new cockpit I suggest a compression post there where your foot falls or someone who is less agile might hop rather than step.

[Wild Wassa]

Originally posted by apindrans:
" ... get into the groove with all this restoration work so it's not one step forward and two back? ..."

I don't have deadlines ... that's the main thing. I give myself targets to help keep focussed, which rewards me ... but not deadlines.

I find that if I section areas of the boat and don't move onto another area, until the section that I'm doing is finished or (most likely) finished to the level of the section beside it (just needing paint). I find I'm not reworking too many area or getting ahead of myself or over painting.

I don't work on only one boat at a time, that's the trick when working on small boats, because there is too much down time, while waiting for stuff to cure.

I have at least 5-10 other bits (foils, boxes whatever) from other boats being done in a lose kind of production line, for when there is down time on the number one boat. I allow the plastics that I use, a long time to cure (hence much down time), before I rework an area. That means I'm doing less work, less sanding.

I'm lucky because a few friends are also painters and I try harder just to impress them (or to piss them off to be honest). They are only car body painters, that gives me added thrust ... but most of all the focus comes because it is a joy just working on the right kind of boats for this painter, racing dinghies.

All the best Skipper ... and just stick with it. Do something on the boat every day, so that you keep some continuity in your thoughts, even if it is just sharpening your tools. It is not doing the boats that's hard, it is keeping continuity ... that's hard.

Warren.

[ 03-24-2005, 04:43 PM: Message edited by: Wild Wassa ]

[Concordia..41]

Might I suggest a cockpit-ectomy?

Image Station Album - Cockpit Removal (http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2129116783)

:D

Keep your chin up!

- M

[Bayboat]

Aspindrans: Only two steps back at a time? How did you get so lucky?

[Bayboat]

Hi Margo. I don't know if this will make you feel better about that cockpit or not. My two sons have just about completed a re-section on Ariel's (Hinckley Sou'wester)cockpit, including all beams, stanchions, seats, risers, floor, flowerpots and coamings. They're good craftsmen, having been taught by (ahem) me. So the job is coming out fine. They admit that it was much easier to tear it apart than put it together.
They pulled the engine to re-paint the bilge underneath, and, you guessed it--they decided the engine needed re-building. So now we have an old-new 1946 Graymarine. They have been eyeing the galley and ice-box, but I finally brought their enthusiasm to a screeching halt, at least for this year.

[ 03-25-2005, 02:04 AM: Message edited by: Bayboat ]