Huge apologies for the lack of updates...... read on

First up we must apologise for the lax way we are running the blog..... I hope the explanation below will go some way to repairing the wrongs....

Alongside for the winter

Since our last blog back in September last year Our Daddy has been tucked up alongside the middle quay in the inner harbour, opposite the Sprat & Mackerel..... The decision was made by Steve and I that she had to come off the mooring and go alongside for the winter refit which was originally to be a review of what we had and how to improve it.... Mmm that went well as you will see.

Our Daddy is still alongside the quay and will be until April at least!!

After much deliberation, cogitation, discussion, decision making, decision unmaking... we had plan A, then plan B etc etc... we are now somewhere around plan T+1 having gone round the alphabet once already! The main decision was that we could not expect our clients to try and shoehorn themselves into the bunks we had inherited, I got in one and wondered how I was going to get out!! Steve looked at them and said No! Take a look at the few photos we have.... Sorry that they are not very good we have more but they are across computers phones etc... These are from when we started to open out the three cabins, one was accessed from the saloon, the other two and the forward heads meant taking a trip on deck through the forward companion way to the two forward cabins/cupboards, this was part of the big NO that Steve and I had decided on.

This is where the small refit turned into a major one!! they had to go. We stripped out the cabins up for'ard, the heads also needed to go as it was just a waste of space.... enter through the 16" wide door, close door, turn - just, do what was required while standing/sitting in a coffin/cupboard... not a nice place to be, believe me. The cabin off the saloon was similar but better... as it had light! but still had to go, after four + days we managed to remove all the bulkheads, head, bunks, miles of cabling/piping which left us with an open plan hole.... see the picture below to see what we had to start with. It is difficult to really see what we had and what we have to work with as it was difficult to photgraph the cupboards without a seriously wide angle lens!

When we looked back at the open space we had arrived at once all the excess baggage had been removed we moved to plan V+1... we had already gone past U+1... OK what was V+1? well your guess was as good as ours.

V+1 was hatched- strip out everything, pipes, lights, cables, sole plates and anything else we could find and paint the inside of the hull.... that then bought on the next plan W+1! What colour? White? Black? red?... thoughts on these... White? - Our Daddy is 94 years old, she was a fishing boat until the mid 70's, iron nails, iron fittings rust streaks and years of stuff soaking into the timbers meant bleed through from the timbers... white was a no go, Black? - a morgue, dark, unable to see any issues as they would be hidden... a possible. Red? brighter than black, we could still see issues against the colour and it is available in a resin based paint... decision made! we painted out the hull in red... very fetching I hope you agree.


The next discussion point, roofing battens to be painted white? that was soon pooh, poohed as it was not in keeping with our beautiful boat, it had to be oak! now the issue with that was where to get it? and more importantly at what price? this is why I love the traditional sailing people... suggestions and contacts came in a plenty, all sadly pretty costly, one contact came up with a fantastic lead, oak from a saw mill that was scrap to them!!! well that had to be investigated, so I did, contact made and agreement reached we came away with about 1.5 tonnes of green oak for a very reasonable sum, now all we needed to do was cut it.

Oops!!

Now for those of you who follow our Facebook page you will know what happened then...I managed to take my eye off the ball for two seconds and got my finger snagged in the table saw... an operation god knows how many stitches later I had one fat finger... now repaired but next to useless, fortunately my left hand. That is by the by, a flesh and bone wound and Our Daddy now has part of me in her, I do love this boat....
I know I really should be more careful! Onwards and upwards, with all this timber we needed it cut! Steve and I spent two days cutting chunks of oak into battens, then ran them through a thicknesser to get them to a uniform size, we then made sole boards out of the bigger timbers... all with a fat finger! we ended up with a huge pile of them, the picture below is batch number two, 120+ battens and 15 sole boards.

Well I have rambled on enough today, to say that Steve and I are very happy with the way Our Daddy's forecabin is coming together is an understatement. What was a dreary, closet like space is now light, airey, spacious and warm feeling with good lighting and a feeling of space, ok so we don't have bunk cabins/cupboards, but what we do have is a great pilot berth cabin for up to six guests. We still have to finish the woodwork but I am sure you can see what we are trying to achieve. The bunks will be comfortable with plenty of room when they go in this is a picture of what 25 days work looks like, battened out in oak, panelled out in tongue & groove - to be painted white - The oak will be oiled with finest tung oil which will waterproof the timber and add depth of colour to it.

Enough now, when I have time and have got all the pictures together, I will upload them to gallery on the website, this will be of how we progressed through the fore cabin strip and build, I promise I will be more regular with the blogs as Our Daddy gets closer to being where we want to be.

Just to say she will be ready for the Regatta season, we now have a live booking system on the website, we will be offering day/half day sailing trips throughout the season and our beautiful boat "Our Daddy" will be seen out in the Bay and at festivals and regattas around the SW coast and across the Channel.

Be part of it!!! Look at our schedule.

We are on still the middle quay in #Brixham, if you are passing and the hatches are open give us a call and if you fancy the leap of faith aboard if she is on the bottom come and see what we are up too.

Blog soon!

Our Daddy FY7 is now ours...

Our Daddy under full sail

This week we finalised everything and took ownership of Our Daddy FY7 our beautiful Cornish Lugger. Now the hard work starts! in the next few weeks you will see Our D out in the Bay as Steve and I get to grips with the idiosyncrasies of sailing something that weighs in excess of 35 tonnes, has a small rudder, an engine that has a 26 degree offset, lots of string and lots of sails..... we are looking forward to the challenge.

We are getting ourselves organised and have put some dates up on her website for some of the festivals and Regattas that we will be visiting in 2015. They range from long weekends to a nine day trip across the Channel, we will of course be sailing out of Brixham for Day sails, half day sails, Pirate thursdays during the season and many other excuses to get out there.


A quick run down of what is involved in Our Daddy's winter refit this will include refitting of the generator, sadly the old one went to great generator scrap heap, due to seawater ingress from the heat exchanger, so we have a nice shiney new 6kv generator to be installed, the eberpacher heater will need to refitted but will probably have to move from it's present position. Other things to do are, new

Stunning angle of Our Daddy

elecric oven and gas hob in the galley, large larder fridge to be fitted as well, new tiling around the galley bulkheads, non slip flooring installed and a refresh of paint and varnish. The saloon, will have more storage made behind the saloon seats, as currently there is a lot of wasted space in the original design, new cushions and coverings for the seats, refresh of the paint and varnish work, new oak flooring, revamp of the lighting in both areas. Forward of the saloon we currently have a heads & shower, this is staying but will be facelifted, we then have three guest cabins with two bunks in each and a seperate head, this is where the major changes are going to be as the cabins feel to cramped, we will be opening out all of the cabins, removing the forward head creating a light airy feel to the area with bunks and lee cloths.

That is a quick rundown of what will be happening to our lovely boat. There is lots more to do externally but that can be done when the sun shines during winter!!!! Hopefully.

Keep an eye on the blog as we will be updating it as we progress. If you can spare some time to come and help us the rates of pay are a pastie and tea, get in touch if you can.

Wish us luck
Blog soon.

What a great feeling......

to finally get Our Daddy sailing. After all the hard work of the last few months to get the bowsprit and the bumpkin rebuilt, all of the pile of blocks we had that were seized up repaired and rebuilt. All of the missing lines and purchases replaced, making various parts to make the launching of the 'sprit and bumpkin easier. It was time to go sailing!!!!

We perhaps could have chosen a better day for it but hey the thought of getting Our Daddy out to air her canvas was to much. The weather had been blowing a good F5-6 easterly, north easterly for a good few days, those of you who klnow the Bay will now that that means swell!!

Our D's bobstay sything through the waves

Our good friend Fred came out to give us a hand while Steve and I worked out how this did that and so on, thanks Freddy. We slipped off her mooring and set off down the fairway so that we could get the bowsprit launched having already set the small mizzen sail, Steve shouted up from the stern to hurry up as his steerage was a bit iffy! or was that no existant? Fred and I tensioned the sprit and hoisted the Jib, with the jib unfurled the old girl answered the helm and her head started to come round in the right direction, out into the Bay we headed. Within a few cables of exiting the fairway the bowsprit was disapperaing into the swell.... we ll it needed a wash. Next up was the mainsail! between Fred and I ut went up... sort of! we decided on a reef as it was still pretty gust out there, being used to single line slab reefing it was a wake up call to tie in every pennant on the main to reef it, it is a big sail. Reefing done we set the main, you could feel the power as we came onto the wind even with reef two in. We set off across the Bay towards Ore stone, as her head came down into the waves the bobstay sythed a cut into the water, it was great to watch, but we needed more sail. Fred was now on the helm as Steve and I set up the Staysail, up that went, a couple of adjustments of the sheets and that too was set....... god she was looking good! Vigilance popped her head out for her thursday afternoon sail it was a call of "lets gybe her over and say hello"... Had any of us ever gybed such an achreage of sail? No! oh well in for a penny in for a pound! She came round beautifully and we headed off towards Viggy at an impressive 6.5knots, not bad for virgin gaffer sailors, another gybe and we were above and slightly ahead of Viggy and that is where she stayed, we matched her speed and held her off. Mind you with all the hands she had on deck it would have been light work. Mentioning light work we decided it was probably a good call to head in for the day as we still had all this sail to put away and the sprit and bumpkin so in we headed.

The debrief was in the 'Blue' a well deserved pint and a discussion on what went well and 'what is a work in progress' there was definately more of the later. We al agreed that she is a magnificent lady, beautiful to look at, wonderful to sail, we can't wait to take her out again and are looking forward to ther 2015 season and all the trips we have planned.

I will put the other photographs we have on the website when I get time, have a look at the OUr Daddy Classic Sailing Facebook page as I have uploaded a timelapse video of one of our slick tacks.

Blog soon

The day has come....... We are going sailing

After weeks of work we have now got a fully working boat. Our friend Tom went up the main mast today to return the jib halyard to it's rightful place... Not the deck! After a few failed attempts to launch it properly we have the furling gear all set up and ready to go. We have set up the staysail halyards and sheets and even better it all works.

We just need to lash on the small mizzen sail to the yard and we are go..... The forecast is giving us F4 - 5 from the east so it will be sloppy but hey who cares. I am taking timelapse photos and videomso will try to hash them together and put them on our FB page and website.

Wish us Luck.  

Blog soon

New images added of relaunch day.... Latest Update!

It has taken a little while but here are some of the photos of Our Daddy's relaunch day back in april, complete with it's motley crew. I hope you will agree that she looks beautiful on the water in Galmpton Creek. You can view all of them on the website HERE, thanks to Sylvia and Dennis for the images.

Latest news is that we have about two days work to go to have her ready for her first sail with us and we will be able to put up the lot, after months of stripping and rebuilding blocks we are getting very close to Sailing day. If it goes well we will be out as often as possible getting some air in her lungs to make sure that she is ready for when we hope to take her down to Looe in October to meet some of the Pengelly family who actually used to own her. We will be posting up dates for the 2015 season very soon so do keep checking the website.

Blog soon.

We have been a bit lax in our updaes....

Apologies for that..... Work has been progressing on 'Our D' after we bought her back round to Brixham in April.... has it been that long! Unfortunately as we also run an RYA training centre the work has been a little slow but we are getting there. When we took Our D over she was in a pretty sorry state, unloved for a few years and blocks were seized up, ropes were chafed through or that full of salt you could do the Indian rope trick with them, or poke someone in the eye from 10m...

A lot of the work we have had to do is time consuming, such as stripping the seized blocks down, turning new pins, bushing some of the badly worn sheaves, the refinished blocks are looking smart I think. We have both had to work on our spicing skills which have been long forgotten as we had a box of seized blocks and very little information on how the bowsprit was set up, some head scratching was done and trawling across the internet to find any old images of how she was set up, we found a lot of great pictures from a french photographer called Francois Madic, we are trying to contact him so that we can use some of them on the website, but they were good enough for us to see the way that the bowsprit was set up, well we got it all sorted a couple of weeks ago after having to have some new parts made.

All in all with the Sea school, which has been really busy this season and working on Our D it has been a hectic few months but we are really close to getting her ready to sail, maybe next week!! so if you are around Torbay and you see her blue hull and red sails out there give us a wave.

Blog soon....

Relaunch day is getting ever closer.....

Our Daddy is to be relaunched on Good Friday next week, after a, to say moist winter, we have a weather window for a few days to hopefully get the painting completed before she is relaunched. Steve is out on the water training so it is up Tim and our band of helpers to get it done. No pressure then.

Tim is concentrating on getting the stem scarf completed by the end of this week so that it can be sealed, painted and capped with the bronze alloy bow protector, this has got to be polished and lacquered before refitting. The baby bowsprit can then be fitted and the main forestay attached and tensioned. All the spars which we have not managed to varnish because of the awful weather will re put back on deck and the engine test run innthe yard before launch day.

There is still a mountain of work to do but at least our lovely Lugger will look great in her new colours, keep your eyes peeled for the gleaming Daddy coming round the breakwater at about lunchtime on Good Friday. She will be alongside the Heritage pontoon in the near future as the new generator needs to be fitted and a few other bits and peices need to be done while alongside.

It has been a journey of discovery for Steve and I and the weather gods have not been kind to us, but we hope to have Our Daddy ready for the summer holidays and will be involving her in Brixham's Pirate Thursday's and running half day and full day sailing trips around the Bay. We will also betaking her down to her original home port of Looe hopefully to show her off to the locals who love her dearly.

Apologies for the delay in the blogs but they will be coming thick and fast as we near relaunch day. Wish us Luck!!

Blog soon

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas & a Prosperous New Year....

It is our final office day today before Steve and I head off the 'alternative office' to debrief on the year 2013........... Well that's the theory!!

It has been a short year in the life of Our Daddy with us, but eventful, her renovation/rejuvenation is coming along. The weather is now a huge player in the equation, we shall overcome it somehow and carry on.

In the short few months we have been working on Our Daddy there have been triumphs and the odd setback..... as everyone in the Heritage fleet in Brixham keep telling us "that's wooden boats for you", thanks fellas. We are happy to say that this beautiful old Lugger has not given us any major surprises.

From both Steve and myself we wish you all a wonderful Christmas and New Year and hope to see you aboard Our Daddy FY7 when she is working next year. A Special thanks go to our helpers who turn up regardless of the weather, Andy, Cameron, Kate Chan and Tim, without these guys help we would not be where we are now.

Blog soon

Tim

Well it had to happen........

Our Daddy is 92 years old and we have been happily stripping, rubbish, ropes, blocks, redundant kit, sails, paint, varnish, barnacles etc from her over the last few weeks. We have a shed bulging full of sails, ropes, blocks, various iron pieces and other sundry items.

Mmmm 92 year old kindling anybody?

We were advised by the surveyor to have a look at the stem of the boat, to the uninitiated that is the large timber which helps to form the bows of the boat, so check it we did. Tim started "checking" it last Friday and found the odd soft patch!! to say the least, weetabix was stronger, "Checking" was being done with a 1" chisel and a 1lb hammer, this meant Our D had a stem which looked more like a
game of Tetris with square, rectangular chunks missing. Well after Steve and Tim had a discussion about 'scarfing' in several new pieces of wood to strengthen the stem, they came to the conclusion that the best and long term repair was to be undertaken........ you can see the results of the decision to the right here..

The stem has now been cut back to good solid wood and a we are in the process of sourcing a replacement piece of seasoned hardwood which will be cut and shaped to fit the gaping hole we now have in Our Daddy's bow section. We are pleased however, that this is the only major area

Definitely something missing.....

of rot that we have found on her, a testimony to the build quality by the Cornish shipwrights of Looe that built her back in 1921. Not quite a triumph this one but of sorts it is, as we now know how solid Our Daddy actually is!

Other triumphs of the past couple of days, the hydraulic windlass on deck was looking decidedly corroded and tired, well a few of the nuts and bolts had succumbed to the ravages of time and the sea and were just a mound of iron oxide roughly shaped like a stud and nut. They were duly ground off and the weighty windlass removed. The corrosion on parts of it were very bad so we have had a new top plate made, new hydraulic coupling plate made and the whole thing has beed stripped down and serviced, We will add photos as soon as it is refitted. Not so much of a triumph! we also repainted the boot top line on the hull....... Shame most of it came off when Steve started stripping the paint off the topsides...Oops sorry Andy.

Our thanks again to all our willing helpers without which we would not be as far forward with the Our Daddy project. Role call this week, Cameron, Tim, Andy and Chan, thanks guys we hope you are not getting bored and continue to lend us a very welcome hand in renovating Our Daddy to her former glory. Well that's it for now, more photos on our Facebook and twitter pages.

Blog soon!!

The transformation is beginning

From what seems like an age we are now seeing changes to Our Daddy. The first few weeks were taken up working out a plan of works and moving the things we want to keep and removing everything we don't, there was a lot of that! It was also a voyage of discovery, in every locker, beneath every bunk and seat we found things that our part of Our D'. We found the unusual compass which will be renovated, checked and become our steering compass, a fuly working oil lamp in the aft crew cabin, once polished it will look beautiful plus lots of other bits and pieces.

After the survey we now have clear goals and milestones in Our D's rejuvenation back being the beautiful boat that she is, first up after we had checked nails and chain stay bolts was to replace the nails and fill the areas where we had pulled them. We have replaced the chainstay bolts that were removed after coating them in red lead paint and sealing the holes around the bolts with red lead putty, I was amazed that you can still buy all things red lead, but if you have a wooden boat there is nothing to replace it that works as red lead. The hull below waterline has had all the loose antifoul scraped back and any low spots filled and faired back using epoxy fillers for the deeper ones and red lead putty to fair the joints and any areas needing that little bit of fettlin'. She is now sporting her first coating of antifoul primers and the fist coat of primer for the boot top, it is amazing the difference just a coat of paint makes to the look of her...... I hope you agree. Once the outside of the hull is primered up to gunwale then we have milestone 1 completed..... Woop!

A couple of the Spars have also been stripped of paint and varnish ready for their first coats of many, we will be Dutch varnishing the Spars which will make them gleam in the sunlight, it is a slow process though as each layer has to dry and be rubbed down in between..... The beauty of a wooden classic. We still have the gaff and boom to take off the boat to revarnish but they can wait a while as the two yards for the mizzen, the bowsprit and bumpkin are enough to be going at for the moment. We removed the windlass yesterday, after having to grind off what was left of the bolts that have been there for a few years, it was working ok so just needs a service, removal of all the rust, repainting and cleaning out of the oil reservoir, we will also clean the deck under it and  paint it which will help in future as the deck is quite stained from previous hydraulic oil leaks.

Steve and I would like to thank Andy, Cameron and Tim for their help so far in preparing and painting what we have so far, Cameron also has a large box of blocks that we have stripped down to renovate :-)

Will post the next update next week, once we are hull primed we will be de rigging the masts and cloaking Our D in tarps while we start on the deck area.

Blog soon.

The work starts now....

We have now received the hull survey for Our Daddy and have been able to set out our plan of works.....

There were a couple of advisories on the survey which needed further inspection, one of which were the nails attaching the hull planks to the frames. As you can see from the picture there is some rust staining along her side, this is caused by the small wooden plug that was originally used to cap the nails, shrinking or having fallen out being replaced with filler, water seeps into the wood and starts to corrode the nails. It has a lovely name 'Nail Sick' so because of this we had to pull several nails to check in their condition, now that was a task and a half bearing in mind some of these had been there for close on a hundred years!!

New

Old

We have to say that the nails we have pulled are in very good condition, that is a relief as having to refasten her hull planks would have taken a fair old time, it is not just a case of whack a nail in it is far more time consuming than that! That was one question asked resolved the second was the condition of the Chain stay bolts, well we have removed a couple of these and they are also in good fettle, all in all very pleased.

So the tasks begin, first up is to remove and fair up the topsides and get them primed and sealed for the winter, fair and prime/antifoul the hull so as to seal it, then it will be onto the bulwark timbers, again this is fairing the timbers, priming and top coating to seal the timber....... there is a lot of fairing and finishing to be done!!

Well enough for today, next Monday we are taking down the topmast so that can be..... you guessed it, faired, painted but 6-10 coats of varnish this time!!

We will be posting up the sailing schedule in a couple of weeks time so keep your eye out on here and the websites for the interesting places to visit and sailing trips we will be offering in 2014.

Blog soon

Keep you eyes peeled...

As Our Daddy is on the move. With a crew of 6 and lots to eat all made by the crew Our Daddy is shippin' out tomorrow at about 1030. We are heading for Galmpton where she will be craned out at 1545 for the start of her refit so that she is ready for next season. Give us a wave if you see us. Pictures and videos to follow.

Blog soon

The next chapter is about to start.....

Our Daddy will very soon be making her trip round to her winter home. On the 15th of October Our D will be making the trip with Steve and I and a few willing volunteers round to Galmpton to be hauled out for her winter refit, paint and varnish.  I have uploaded a few photos to the Gallery page of how she is now before any work has been done to her, click the photo below to go there.....

The plan of works has yet to be scheduled but obviously there is plenty of work to do to her ready for next season.

We will be repainting her hull in the original Pengelley family colours for Our Daddy which we understand were white boot top, pale blue topsides, Dark Blue bulwarks with a yellow pinstripe. The decks will be cleaned and the insides of the bulwarks painted in the cream of the coachroof, all the varnishing on deck will be stripped and replaced, all fittings on deck cleaned/polished if needed and painted if not.

Down below we will be refitting the galley, repainting, revarnishing, polishing, recovering and making sure she has a welcoming and comfortable feel to this beautiful boat.

Steve and I cannot wait to get started on Brixham Sea schools new flagship, Our Daddy FY7, we will be looking forward to working her out of Brixham in 2014. From now on the blogs will be coming fairly regularly as she transforms into the stunning boat she once was.

Keep checking back to see her progress and if you want to see where we are going next season why not sign up for the Our Daddy newsletter, we promise not to bombard you with them, we will just send them with information and latest offers.

Thanks for reading

Blog soon

Steve & Tim

A fantastic original of Our Daddy....

When Steve decided that he was going to buy Our Daddy we asked our friend and local artist, Toni Knights, if he could do a line drawing of Our Daddy so that we could create our logo. Well Toni came up with an absolute cracker... we currently have the originals which we will be having digitised and printed onto various things and you could also have them as a signed limited print from us.

Thanks Toni......We love them, they are true to Our Daddy in her current form and will be looking great adorning the walls of our office once we have them framed....

We will hopefully be bringing you news regarding Our Daddy in the very near future....

Blog soon.

A bit of help for our friends at.....

Trinity Sailing trust.  The guys at Trinity are setting up a "Charting a New Course" project, their mission statement for this project is:

A Project which will use offshore sail training to help disadvantaged young people from the area develop confidence, self-esteem and the life skills necessary to overcome the challenges they face and make a positive start to adulthood.

 

 

Just buy a Herald Express today or next Thursday, fill out the coupon and send it off to the FREEPOST address to help them achieve their goal.

Thanks

Blog soon



   

Another new look to the website....

Well that was a mad few weeks, some sailing, some teaching some maintenance and some restoration... Phew!!

Hence the reason that not a lot has changed on the website recently, so today I have mainly been twiddling.  The look of the page has changed, for the better, I hope you agree. We will soon have a newsletter which you can subscribe to on every page, if you would like to keep up to date with what is happening with Our Daddy, what trips we are programming and of course if we have any offers available then signing up is a must :-)

As things start to slow down here at Brixham Sea school I will have more time to add the content to the site so please keep revisiting to keep an eye on me!!

Don't forget all the latest will be added to our newsletters so please do sign up for it, we promise not to bombard you with junk mail but only interesting topics and links to all things Our Daddy and Brixham Sea School.

A picture of our friends boat Sea Fish, a 1927 Worfolk Smack, this is the restoration bit of what we have been up to! She is up for sale if you fancy owning a classic.

 

 

Pretty isn't she...... interested? She is for sale for £25,000 not much to own part of the UK sailing heritage... Contact us if you are.

 

 

Blog soon

 

Tim

Afternoon sail on Pilgrim

I was sat in the office ploughing through the odd bit of paperwork as you do when Steve, the Skipper of @PilgrimBM45 put his head through the door. We are sailing this afternoon if you fancy it? Well, conputer screen or sail an old gaffer....... no contest, Pilgrim won! I have posted some photos on Brixham Sea School's Facebook page if you want to have a look.

Thanks to the Pilgrim team, a perfect afternoon.

Blog soon

Twitter account over 60

After a late #DevonHour tonight we have reached a milestone on our twitter account for @OurDaddyFY7 over 60 followers. We have been a bit quiet over the last week due to water activities but this will be resolved tomorrow. Follow us to keep an eye on Our Daddy's progress.

Zig Zag up for sale

Brokers been to do photographs detailed brochure available in a couple of days.

It is hot hot hot

Not that I am complaining of course the temp readout in the car says 28º and the sea breeze is strangely quiet at the moment. One brave sole in the Bay trying to sail...