Week Twenty Five

Monday 19th June 2006.
Steve 2 undercoated the engine room, with dark grey at the bottom and cream at the top.I climbed into my overalls (sexy huh) to finish painting the mast and the cratch with Mauritius Blue Gloss, I really love that colour. The Red Oxide Enamel and the Mauritius Blue will be the final colours, but they will be rubbed down and reapplied when "HADAR" has her final paint job, and that will be done by Tina Paramore after "HADAR's" fit out which comes next.Roger and Keith unpacked the sheeting and set about putting the side sheets up in the open hold, firstly they checked that they were the right length, they then laid a black mastic strip along the metal fixing strip the length of the open hold. They began to lay the side cover over the mastic strip and then battened them into place with oak battens, which were screwed to the metal work of the open hold. So we had a sandwich, metal fixing strip, mastic strip, side sheet and then oak batten all screwed together. Not the sort of sandwich you would want to eat though LOL.Having completed both starboard and port side sheets as far as they could go, they put the newly painted stand and planks into place.

Tuesday 20th June.
Roger and Keith finished fitting the side sheets over the saloon. They were a little more difficult to fit. After they were in place the painted Mast, cratch and remaining planks were put up. The side sheets were roped into place over the planking with blue nylon rope for now, it will be replaced before we take "HADAR" away. The top sheets were rolled out, and placed over the top planks along the open hold and over the saloon, checking all three sheets to make sure the eyelets matched up with the fixing loops on the gunwales. It all looked fantastic, and fitted perfectly. Keith sat down and made eye splices to tie the top sheets into place. Once they were tied into place we roped the top sheets down. Standing back and looking at her all done, already for launching, bought a lump to my throat, because this was the day we had been waiting for. She is all ready for launching.

Wednesday 21st June.
Roger and Joel (on work experience) started to move "HADAR" across to the centre of the shed ready for her launch on Thursday. All this was done with the use of rollers, a dumper truck and brute force. It took pretty much the whole day to get her in the right place.