The pressure is on! The time is ticking by and we have an enormous amount left to do before the launch date which is gradually being pushed forward. Unfortunately this is due to the initial state of Chinook and the huge amount of degradation that was discovered little by little during the course of this past year. That said, we continue to make large inroads into the task at hand and it is with pleasure that I can report that the laying of the teak deck is well advanced, and also the preparations for re fitting the ballast keel. We have taken the totality of the lead sole off the keel and re-poured it into a new sole. This was done for two reasons. The first is that it was so badly damaged from too many groundings that it would have required a lot of filling and fairing to make it complete. The second is that I wanted to move some weight forward to offset for the engine, so the aft section of the sole has been re poured into the forward section and we will replace the aft section with an oak sole. I am sure that this won’t be sufficient to fully trim the boat but it will certainly help. We may have to put internal ballast forward once in sailing trim to float her on her lines and in the future we can calculate if we need to remove more ballast aft. All of the deadwood has been refitted to the hull and the small lead ballast has been fixed in place.
Sandra has finished the mast hoops and has started on leathering the blocks of which there are 55 in total and about half requiring leather protection. A sizeable amount of work right there! Meanwhile I have been concentrating on the plumbing, engine installation and controls. The 1930s gear shift lever has been modified to be more discreet and functional and to work with a Morse cable. In the 30s it was planted in the cockpit sole and used a long rod connected to the gearbox to action ahead or astern. I decided that a hole in the cockpit sole was not desirable and changed it to mount vertically on the aft face of the cockpit. The throttle lever, which I also believe to date from the 30s has received attention and now functions beautifully with the Morse cable. I am quite proud of the results.
The transom is receiving its final layer of timber and will be finished next week. The mast is now 50% complete and the jib boom will be in one piece soon. The hull is 90% faired now and will soon be ready for primer and more pieces of this most complex of puzzles are winging their way to us from around the globe.
Our Black belt Irish bowman, Andrew, is due to arrive on Tuesday for a couple of weeks, to lift spirits and help out with a much needed extra pair of hands.

Jono