28/03/2012, Tunisia
It's always great to meet new people, passionate about what they do for a living, and this blog is a great way to make these kind of aquaintences. One of my new found friends is Jim Reineck who has a company in the US making all sorts of bronze castings to the original Herreshoff plans and who, in the past, has been a valuable resource in the restoration of Marilee, Rowdy, and more recently Spartan, not to mention a host of smaller Herreshoff designs. He will also be a mine of information for the Chinook project and I can't wait to see the pieces attached to the boat. We were discussing the bow chocks (fairleads) today. Check ours out-they are the real thing!
Have a look at his work at the link on the right.
Jono
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27/03/2012, Tunisia
Sorry about the lapse in regular posts but I have a really good excuse! Saturday morning I bent down to get something out of a cupboard and seized my back up. An old injury that comes back to haunt me once in a while. As a result, I have been feeling a little low these last few days and have spent many hours staring at the ceiling! But don't worry, I am back on the job, albeit a little bent out of shape.
As you will see from the pictures, things are going well on board Chinook. We have 16 pairs of frames built and over half are fitted to the boat. There are also at least as many deck beams, who will increase and multiply when we cut out the middle bits in way of the cockpit. These off-cuts will move forward to the bow area where the deck is narrow and start their new life as deck beams in their own right.
I am more or less confined to the office, although I do, every now and then, hobble around the workshop wondering when I will get to do some real work again! Having reached the end of my capabilities of designing on the computer, I have supplied my self with the drawing tools to do it manually. I'm sure Cap'n Nat would approve. Being basically computer illiterate when it comes to using design programs, I will endeavour to draw the bits and pieces that I need to have made, and this will include such things as tanks, interior layouts, mounting brackets, etc etc.
Jono
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22/03/2012, Tunisia
Like every self-respecting manager/skipper of a finely tuned racing yacht, I am keenly aware of the weight issue and have decided to take important steps to ensure that on the morning of each race, Chinook is properly prepared to do battle, knowing that nothing has been left to chance. By providing the crew with pleasing period surroundings and impeccable turn of the century furnishings to allow them to more easily lose those excess pre-race kilos, I hope to achieve perfection in classic yacht fine tuning. The picture will give you an idea of what I have in mind and though we will be installing some small bronze fittings (eg: a Wilcox & Crittenden "Senior" Head) for the above reasons, I firmly believe that we will be just that little bit lighter come the starting signal!
Jono.
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21/03/2012, Tunisia
Chinook has a great "Shipmate" stainless steel, kerosene, 3 burner stove with oven which I believe can be converted to propane or butane gas. I have heard that it is an expensive operation, though I would like to try to keep it, so if anyone out there knows about this, let me know.
I had another run in with the customs today, just a small matter of over staying my welcome! Should be sorted tomorrow when I return to see them with a few Dinars.
I have been bouncing around the workshop like a pinball today. So much stuff is swimming around in my head, and I am impatient to see real progress on my side of the project. I tend to prefer the hands on work than the office stuff as you can see the results immediately, so I repaired all the door hinges and even managed to turn up a new bronze knobbly bit that was missing from one of them on my mini lathe. I then started to polish the said knobbly bit when it took off across the workshop at mach 2 closely followed by my curse. Allah smiled and I found it in less than 2 minutes. All in all a very satisfying half hour and then back to the office.
Jono
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20/03/2012, Tunisia
We now have 6 deck beams fitted, 4 pairs of frames fitted, the horn timber and the greater part of the tramsom structure renewed. There are also at least another 6 pairs of frames awaiting fitting so all in all we seem to be making headway. There are plenty of little problems encountered along the way to keep us thinking and I would hope that by month's end 90% of the after structure will have been replaced. It is with much disapointment that we have found so much rot, corrosion and completely unuseable parts of the original boat. I had hoped to be able to conserve a bit more, but this is not to be. On the up side, the original interior and fittings are all salvageable and this coupled with the keel, deadwood, and various deck gear will keep her soul intact.
Tuesday is Independance Day here in Tunisia so I will be spending the day at home doing office work. I will try to think of something to post tomorrow.
Jono
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18/03/2012, Tunisia
Chinook has decided that things are not advancing fast enough and started giving us a hand on Friday. In a moment of comparative calm in the workshop, there was suddenly an almighty crash, the noise echoing off the walls of the building, and scaring the living daylights out of everyone! Chinook shed a plank, all by herself, without any assistance from anyone bar perhaps Allah! Proof enough that the fasteners all need renewing and that this rebuild is a stitch in time.
Sandra completed her first week here and has made great inroads into the cataloguing of the various hardware we can re use. She has now returned to France to continue with the work on Rowdy which we hope to finish by the end of April.
Jono
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15/03/2012, Tunisia
Sorting, counting, measuring, cursing, estimating, inventorying, climbing, drinking, (coffee that is), talking, cutting, sawing, breathing, laughing, writing, calculating, guessing, crying, discussing, cussing, (again), smoking, worrying, thinking, (of) eating, emailing, phoning, stressing, listing, examining, dimensioning, watching, drilling, unscrewing, hammering, listening, planing, glueing, looking, washing, dreaming, annoying?.................. What the hell, isn't it lunch time yet?
Jono.
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14/03/2012, Somewhere in the ether
For those of you who haven't noticed, there is a little blue F up in the top right hand corner. This means that we are on FBook and as far as I can gather this is a game for everyone to play, the object being to be liked by lots of people. So far we have 7 friends who like our page and 23 something elses. This could mean that we don't have many friends out there and we are basically unpopular on a global scale, or perhaps you all haven't seen the little F or maybe you are just computer illiterate like me. Anyway, The Blue Peter has close to 200 friends and any friend of theirs is a friend of mine, so theoretically we should be at about 207. Not!
So come on, play the game and don't think you can just read our Blog for free. From now on it will cost you a "like".
Jono
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Bonne continuation et bon vent. J-R
13/03/2012, Tunisia
This morning we went to Tunis to source some raw materials such as bronze, brass, and 316L stainless steel, all required for a myriad of applications around the boat. I was pleasantly surprised when we stumbled on an Alladin's cave of metals for sale. Every type, shape, and dimension is available, not to mention all the various alloys of bronze, and this one stop shop should take care of all of our needs. A great find indeed. There is a street in Tunis which has nothing but hardware shops and you can find any type of tool from all the top brands. From the humble hammer to a forklift truck can be found in this street and my tongue lolls like a hound outside the butcher each time I go there.
My next task is to find a good machine shop. The steering system requires work and the list of repairs needed grows as time goes by. There is also a large part of the hardware that can be bolted straight back on board with nothing more than a visit to the polishing wheel. Quite amazing really after all this time.
Jono
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12/03/2012, Tunisia
It is good to be back on the job in hand after a short break at home. While I was away, good progress has been made on several fronts. The new horn timber has been scarfed in and glued in place, the transom rebuild is well advanced and the first set of frames, station 33 are now in place complete with their floor and deck beam. Another set of frames, station 24, have been fitted and are awaiting completion.
News on various equipment is filtering in and I expect to be preparing some orders in the near future. I like more and more the way things seem to be developing in this regard.
It is also a great boon to have Sandra here for the week, as she has become, over the years, my sounding board and with her experience of gaff rigged yachts has already helped me clear up a few things today. She will be in great demand over the next few days.
Jono
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