Patience built by Radclyffe

Discussion in 'Wooden Boat Building and Restoration' started by peter radclyffe, Aug 17, 2010.

  1. apex1

    apex1 Guest

    True,

    btw. I like the "Stuccoville" term!!!
    I heard a similar comment some 20 years ago from CN Argentario shipwrights. You know the guys building their boats over the main road? Every plank and bolt has to cross the road to become a part of the game.

    But some "Stucco" builders still have a good reputation.
     
  2. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    yes, i should not render them all with the same trowel
     
  3. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    [​IMG]
     
  4. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    [​IMG]
     
  5. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    [​IMG]
     
  6. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    9
    Slowly the new frames went in, the poles drilled 17mm for half inch bronze carriage bolts with plastic top hat washers to help insulate the bronze to steel battery, they help, but the current will still track thru’ condensation, we got the bolts from Jamestown Distributors, also 5/16” bolts for the steamed 60mm oak frames, I numbered the steel frames from the bow, as I’d done as foreman on Jeanie Johnston & the big class,
    10 I numbered all frames & planks inside & out, in this way everybody learns they are working in a grid, so if I tell you to put a water inlet midway between i.e. frames ( F )18-19,& planks ( P ) 6-7,you know exactly where to work & hopefully what to do, the 2 steamed frames between the steel frames I marked A & B respectively, a few days spent numbering will save hundreds of hours later on, in lost time & wrong placement of fittings, bulkheads, etc, the list goes on, so its best to take your time & do it properly,

    11 don’t use felt tip where it’s a finished surface as it may show thru’ paint, you can mark every 5th frame first, then any error will become apparent quicker than if you mark consecutively & reach the stern finding you’ve missed one number because i.e.( some troublemaker distracted you to tell you how important they are, all the, “Don’t you know who I am’s”, wandering around stopping production, so off their faces on class A drugs , they don’t even know their own names, just how badly do these retarded junkie’s need your constant attention, can’t they see your busy ), mark at the deck, bilge & keel, p & s, inside & out later at the beam shelves , deck, bulwarks & on the deck beams, & bulkheads on the centreline, fore & aft, & on a beamier boat port & stbd, & leave all these marks on as long as you can ,
    12 even after the boat is launched if she’s fitting out afloat, later transfer these marks to marking tape as the varnish coats go on, so that wherever anybody is in a boat, even with all the planing & grinding sparks, whinging, sweating in 40 degrees C, 60 degrees at sea, cursing, posing, bullshotting, breeze shooting, planning, silica dust, sawdust, shavings, solvents, styrenes, glues, thunder, rain, lightning, sandstorms, the scirocco wind will deposit a layer of red sand on your car from Africa, shouting, screaming, scheming, violence, stupidity , alcohol hangovers & Class-A drug desperado’s withdrawals going on around you, you can still maintain your presence of mind & concentrate on your work, and build 2 beautiful wooden yachts, & their tenders.
     
  7. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    15 By now it will be apparent to all but the thickest project managers, that the work is only half the battle in yacht building, the relentless battle of wills, you all have to put your personalities to one side & concentrate on the work, you can shoot your mouths off later in the bar.
    16 Some of the guys I’ve worked with over the years reckon I take my work too seriously, is that so? Well if they took their work seriously, their caulking wouldn’t leak, their masts & spars would be round & symmetrical & yacht varnish finished, their designs would just for one day have the right placing, spacing, tracing, carving, diameters, welding, braising, timber, metal, fastenings, etc, their cockpits, scuppers & limber holes would drain water, their doors, lockers& drawers would open & shut properly & not jam,
    17 their skylights & hatches likewise & they’d be watertight, their re-fastened boats wouldn’t need re-fastening a week later, their sailtracks would glide, their rigging would hum, their sheaves would roll like Charlie Watts& Pino Paladino, there would be no scratches on their varnished grain, they’d know how to build, fit & fasten without epoxy, their sheers & seams would be fair ,
    18 they would fashion curves less brutally than Elizabeth Frink, & I wouldn’t need to re-make their work. Cant take it too seriously, eh fellas.
    19 One day Poland beat Italy at football, when your in charge it pays to know the fixtures even if you don’t follow football, next day one of the poles dropped a steel frame on his foot with a vodka hangover, so for a month part of his work, hobbling on a broom was gluing up old hull planks, he was wearing leather sandals, I told him to get some steel toe capped working boots,
    20 I didn’t want to send him off the job because the team was welding tight, we could only use 10 old planks, if the Reckonyourbleedingnow yard on the Riviera had put a tilt on the hull 20 years ago we could have used 160 old teak planks, what’s the difference in cost between that & a tilt, that yard reckoned they were the restoration yard in the med,
    21 but tarpaulins obviously weren’t the only things they were pig ignorant about, that yard worked out their policy many years ago: to attach immediately at any cost a vacuum cleaner to the wallet of any owner who entered their gates, this was to be kept working at all costs, the emergency generator to be switched on in the event of a powercut, just like that hamble marina, the extractor only to be turned off when the yacht owner was on his knees—
     
  8. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    27 I decided to pattern & build all the centreline structure myself, I couldn’t trust the poles to do it & I couldn’t waste time, so I made the stem, gripe, keel, sternpost, deadwoods, horn timber or fish spine in italy,& teak counter block, one of the poles comprehensively vodka screwed up the keel rabbet, you have to give them a chance but after that I knew I couldn’t trust them on the centreline,
    28 easier to do it myself & design, pattern, construct, bore & align the rudder , A-bracket & propshafts on this yacht & the big class, a busy few months , when they started planking they were rushing things & getting the plank runs unfair even tho’ I’d lined out the planks fairly, marked butts etc,
    29 so I took them to one side & told them, don’t worry about how long it takes to get the line fair, get it fair, I don’t care if it takes you 3 days to put one plank in, I knew they’d get up to speed, just get it done right once, & for all I care you can throw your wristwatches away, don’t worry about time, I knew these guys had been in the polish military & they were solid workers,
    30 unlike a lot of the guys in the yard, the chief failing of whom was their ability to yap endlessly, shoot the breeze, as thick as 2 short butt straps & incapable of understanding the difference between talk & work, but these poles were great guys, only once in 3 years did I say to them: get back to work, your coffee breaks over: they were earning 3 times what they’d earn in Poland, they had apartments paid for them here & every 4 months would go back home for 2 or 3 weeks at a time, but of all my teams in the yard they were the best, I could teach them what else they needed to know,
     
  9. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    38 One February we used the Italian method of boiling Slovenian oak frames in a tank,( so I put marine ply offcuts in the tank to test the 1088, which means more to shipwrights than 1066, & every one fell apart , as every piece fell apart), whereas in England we’d steam them, it worked well & with practice they got it down to 3 minutes , 1 frame out of the tank & clamped in the boat, Turner Frays an aussie guitarist with Jo Forth & the Multiply, helped them, sometimes we’d jam at his flat,- the hull started to sag apart , keen as the poles were they weren’t watching form & sheer so I put 12 chain & wire bottlescrews, tourniquets across her steel frames at the beamshelves like a giant corset, to pull her back into shape, constantly checking & correcting her sheer , plumb, symmetry, centre & waterlines most old yachts are like old prostitutes, you primp & preen them into shape, check for crushed ribs & damaged spines, give them new coverings, new sails, breast jobs, 3 feet of cleavage, check the upholstery, botoxic epoxy jobs, take up the slack, pert buttocks, kilos of pump injected silicone, play down their shadows ,highlight their cheekbones, trowel on the slap -then launch them on a Saturday night plied with drink, music, greasepaint & presentation speeches, their prices go up, then tarted up, servicing sailors, they go cruising & hang around the docks for 20 years, until shagged out it’s time to do it all again, marine ***********, the analogy is inescapable, puts food on your table, feeds your children , puts fuel in your tank, shakes in your knees , tears in your eyes & blood on your tracks.
     
  10. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    [​IMG][/IMG]
     
  11. dskira

    dskira Previous Member

    Holly macaroni Peter, what a beautiful work you did.
    I admire your work Master!
    This is a beautiful boat, and thanks to you, she is again sailing like a Queen.
    Thank you for the beautiful pictures.

    Daniel
     
  12. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    thanks Daniel
     
  13. apex1

    apex1 Guest

    May I, in all humilty say, thanks PETER.

    And You know, I know how and when the hit shits the fan..........or so.


    Chapeaux!
     
  14. peter radclyffe
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    peter radclyffe Senior Member

    thanks Richard, yes its a struggle for us all
     

  15. apex1

    apex1 Guest

    Hmm, but the majority does not grasp it.

    Old fashioned, well done, is a value for ever.
    High tech, even well done, is a value today. Tomorrow the crap is not worth talking.

    But to whom I am talking............
     
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