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NB Siskin


Steve Goddard

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Normal Service will be resumed as soon as possible

 

I am having an argument with my Domain registrar at the moment which has resulted in my own blog being temporarily off line until I get the issue sorted out. This is why the picture links are broken.

 

Apologies for this, I'm trying to get this sorted ASAP

 

Steve

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  • 1 year later...

Right I can't believe how long I've let this slip. it's nearly 2 years since i last wrote a post.

 

Athy gave us a shout recently while we were down the south Oxford and asked what was happening with the blog and I promised to get it sorted so here we go.

 

I still have not managed to sort out the nbsiskin.com domain name so the only thing that I can do is to use the nbsiskin.co.uk that I also have. As you will no doubt realise the pictures on the CWF build blog are all linked through the .com domain and there is no easy way of changing that to the .co.uk other than doing each one individually (with no search and replace either) so it's going to be a bit of a task but I've started and will get to the end as soon as I can. I've started at page one (of 11) and am now on page 3 after three days :(

 

Believe it or not Siskin is just about finished now and as soon as I've fixed the picture issue I'll start new posts showing the finishing stages.

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Hello Steve,

 

Like ditchcrawler who wondered what happened to you,

 

So was I, but never had the courage to ask if there was a reason for the news about your fitt-out to have stopped.

 

I must say that I'm happy to read all is well, and the boat just about finished, which is good news.

 

Looking forward to see your photos once you've sorted that issue.

 

Atb,

 

Peter.

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Everybody thanks for all the kind words, hopefully this time I will get to the end wacko.png

 

OK I've spent the last couple of weeks sorting out all the broken picture links caused by the issues with the domain name. Each one had to be fixed by hand as there is no global search and replace and for some reason not all of the links were editable and I had to resort to hacking the HTML. There are still some issues on some of the earlier posts with the emoticons which for some reason broke when I edited the posts but it's just too soul destroying to go back and do it all again. The editor for the forums is great but it does do some funny things to the underlying code.

 

One of the reasons it took me so long was I got caught up in the blog and was reading every post again which was great as a: I had forgotten a couple of things that I had done and b: I just can't believe the amount of work that has gone into Siskin to date ohmy.png

 

Right where are we now. Siskin is nearly finished (where have I heard that before blush.png ) honest. There are a couple of very small things left to do and then a bit of a tidy up with a splash of paint inside to spruce up the inevitable wear and tear and some small bits of trim. Chris and I have used the boat quite a bit now and I think I've got 99.9% of the niggles out of her.

 

My plan is now to finish off documenting the build (retrospectively of course wink.png ) but it's going to have to wait for a couple of weeks as I have to go pick up a boat from Longport wharf and get it back to Debdale for a new training school John Barnard (remember him from the painting posts of the blog) is setting up. Strangely John has asked me to be the chief instructor so I'm now qualified to run the RYA helmsman. crew and diesel courses biggrin.png. Watch this space is all I can say.

 

As a trailer for the next post all I can say is Dog Box. See you then smile.png

Edited by Steve Goddard
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I honestly can’t remember the last time I sat down to write a post for the blog. Far too long ago I know that much.

Siskin is now about 98% finished. She just needs some small pieces of trim round some of the cupboards, the lock on the bathroom door sorting, a refresh of some of the paint etc. etc. etc. icon_smile.gif . I suspect like all boats she’ll never be completely finished but I like that as a concept as it always give you an excuse to do a bit more..

Because of the long absence of the blog there’s been quit a lot of work done on Siskin not just by myself but by Ken and David and John as I decided early in the year that if I was ever going to get Siskin finished then it would be quicker with some help. In order to pay for said help I took a seasonal lock keepers job with CRT at Foxton. Lets just say it was not the best decision I ever made and leave it at that. The good thing however was that the work did get done on Siskin.

So where to start? Well the obvious place is the end icon_smile.gif i.e. the dog box

The design comes from a 1960′s Classic Boat magazine with some little changes because times have moved on and there are different materials and tools available but the proportions etc are as they should be.

2015-08-14-15.18.58-300x225.jpg

I had a couple of planks of Kwila (a very dark, hard and heavy timber) which I had brought back from Papua New Guinea with all the Rosewood which has ended up in Siskin. It is the ideal type of timber as it’s very similar in properties to teak. The main carcass of the box are two ends and two rails connecting them. In the Classic boat magazine they are joined together with hand cut water check dovetails which to be honest are WAY past my skill level to cut and even Kens not keen. In the end I invest in a mitre lock cutter and although it is a complete pain to set up when it is it produces an incredibly neat, strong and water proof joint. Result icon_biggrin.gif

2015-08-14-15.15.39-300x225.jpg

The carcass is glued together using West System glue as this worked really well on the Padauk in the back cabin and the Kwila is an oily wood to.

The resulting carcass is very rigid despite having no bracing. You can just see the rebate in the bottom where it sits over the upstand on the roof. It’s been designed to keep the bottom of the box clear of the roof so you don’t get capillary action (had that problem on the front doors as the clearance was too small).

2015-08-22-13.19.12-300x225.jpg

The frames for the roof lights are 65 x 25mm Kwila rebated for the glass and with a special rebate on the bottom for a compression weather seal which is not traditional but a damn sight more effective than a face to face seal. The corners are mitred rather than butt joint so that there is a little exposed end grain as possible. To provide strength each corner has a couple of Miller dowels across the joint. As you can see in the photo the hinge end (left of the picture) has the seal groove in a different place to the other three sides. It’s not ideal as it mens more work but it keeps all of the edges and ledges neat and tidy. The big issue is that the seal grooves on the sides and back don’t match so it’s out with the Japanese saw and the smallest chisel I’ve got to hand cut the grooves over. It’s all good fun Honest icon_smile.gif

2015-08-22-13.42.29-225x300.jpg

 

2015-08-24-18.23.21-225x300.jpg

With all the bits sorted it’s time for varnish, lot and lots of varnish. Four coats later (that’s enough for the mo I’ll put some more on over winter) it’s starting to look really nice. Next job is the glass. I would have like d to put sealed units in but there is simply not the depth in the frames so the plan was to put a single pane of glass in with secondary glazing at the bottom to prevent condensation in winter then Ken stated the obvious which was simply take the dog box off over winter and replace it with the “temporary” cover I’ve been using for the last three years. Has the added advantage that the dog box is not exposed to winter weather. Sortedicon_smile.gif

A quick trip to the local glass merchant to order the glass is an eye opener. I need four bits approx 150mm x 75mm x 4mm thick toughened only to be told that the minimum order for toughened glass is 1 sq ft. No problems I don’t mind that I only want 1/2 sq foot I’ll pay the minimum but no it doesn’t work like that it’s 1 sq ft minimum for each PIECE. So I have to pay for 4 sq ft of glass which is 50 quid icon_mad.gif . The glass is fixed in with 12mm x 1mm security tape which makes a nice watertight neat joint.

2015-08-26-10.52.07-300x225.jpg2015-10-26-13.53.51-300x225.jpg

In the original design the lights were attached to the carcass with butt hinges and there was a complicated gutter arrangement to collect the water which went through the inevitable gaps. It’s a lot simpler just to use waterproof continuous hinge. Now the one I really wanted which was very small and simple only came on rolls of 50m so I ended up with some designed for horse boxes which although they are a lot bigger don’t look to much out of place and are certainly waterproof. The picture on the right shows the hinges and the top rail as well as the Miller dowels in the corners of the lights. The only thing from experience is that I need to put a little bit of seal at the ends of the hinges to stop water blowing in.

2015-08-27-11.50.39-300x225.jpg

Finishing touches are four brass stays to keep the lights open. Its nice that you can see the weather seals on the bottom of the lights as well. So with all the stuff finished its off to the boat to see if it fits. ohmy.png What I hear you say “you’ve not tried it yet?” Correct icon_wink.gif but I’m certain it will fit icon_smile.gif and it does. There are a couple of little things to sort out. I need to put some pull handles on to pull the lights closed and put some thin window tape around the rebate to get a proper seal on the upstand but apart from that it’s all good.2015-08-27-16.30.30-300x225.jpg

.

Edited by Steve Goddard
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  • 4 years later...
On 11/09/2010 at 08:52, Steve Goddard said:

Time to build the straight parts of the sides. The steel has come back from being cropped to size and bent to the pattern we sent with the sheets. First of all the sheets are laid out on the base as it offers a nice flat surface to work on. Then its a repeat of the base plate, grind the weld vee's at the joints which is a lot easier as the steel is only 6mm thick and I can do it on a cutting table at a decent working height, line up the plates with a string line and straight edge, weld temporary plates across the joints to keep them flat and then tack then together and then go around and grind off all the tack-welds. I'm getting use to this now 22072010146-225x300.jpg

 

Next thing is laying out the knees and welding them on. They all fit pretty well and only need a little persuasion with a weld on clamp to get them sitting tight to the sides.

 

23072010148-225x300.jpg

 

When the first side is finished we get to do it all again on the second side. When everything is tacked together Simon goes around and finish welds all of the knees. Then its my turn to get in, grind off all the tack welds which held down the clamps and then finally give both sides a lick of red oxide primer. 27072010156-225x300.jpg

I love primer, you can slap it on with impunity and at the end the improvement in looks is amazing.

 

At the end of the day it looks as if we really do have the first bits of the boat

 

 

27072010157-300x225.jpg

Siskin finally becomes 3D as we lift and fix the two sides . We (well Simon) welds on a couple of eyes onto the top side of the sides so that we can attach a couple of D shackles and a lifting beam and use the forklift to pick them up. Once the side is roughly upright the first job is to get it tacked to the bottom plate and lined up with the string line which has been painted along the side. With Simon working on the outside and me working on the inside it is quite easy to get the plate lined up and tacked onto the base. All that remains to be done is to put a couple of temporary struts to hold the first side up.

 

Then it's deja vue again as we do the second side and all of a sudden I can start to see the shape that the boat will eventually be. Back to reality and the next job is to get the gunwales on to give some strength to the top of the sides. First job is to weld prep the top of the sides with a bevel. As you start grinding you start to wish you had decided on a 30′ boat rather than a 57′ as there seems to be an awful lot of side to grind up and this is just the straight bit. Oh well practice makes perfect so they say. We soon have a couple of lengths of gunwale on the boat. Now it really is starting to look the biz 28072010167-300x225.jpg

 

 

 

On 11/09/2010 at 09:45, andywatson said:

I have beeen watching this. It is very detailed, written in an entertaining style and is well illustrated.

 

For those who are interested in how an elite builder works this blog is essential reading.

 

Hi Steve

i am looking for my old friend SG from Coventry 1970 who went off to PNG. 

Are you he?
I am Dr James Bell who had a sports car and you had a chopper. 
best

james

james@greenviro.co.uk

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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