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!

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