What's in the yard at the moment - Tranquil - Liza

Yesterday we slipped this 30ft Halvorsen style motor cruiser with an interesting and appropriate nautical name of Tranquil Liza - do you get it!

Great name although I am not sure if it is the amount of alcohol or the serenity of boating that achieves this state - could be both.

This boat was built in Melbourne by Harvey boatbuilders and spent a lot of her time in the fresh waters of Lake Eildon in NE Victoria. The boat is in fantastic condition for a steel boat over 40 years of age and a credit to the builder and the owner who regularly repairs and maintains this immaculate boat.

The original Dynet type coating is still intact and the hull is as fair as a new fibreglass boat.

What is also interesting is the built in engineering features that allow lighter gauge steel to be used without compromising strength. This can be seen on the cabin top where the steel has pressed ridges to strengthen and assist curving. The internal bulkheads are also much lighter than traditional timber, but much stronger.

She has a red Holden motor that purrs along and I think the noisiest bit is the starter motor.

It certainly goes to show that all boats can last a long time if they are regularly maintained and small problems are dealt with quickly.

What's in the yard at the moment - Sunrise

This week we slipped one of Paynesville's best known boats Sunrise.

This 23 ft NZ Kauri planked motor boat has been in the same family for three generations. Built in 1952 for Jack Trevorrow who is the grandfather of current custodian John Waller.

Built by Harry Clark in Williamstown/Newport it was one of a series of boats with a 'sun' theme. There was the:

20ft Day Dawn
23ft Sunrise and the
28ft Sunset

Sunrise has always been clear finished which makes her very easy to pick out among the ever increasing floating plastic on the lakes. John has also re-stepped the timber mast and fitted period brass navigation light fittings.

Beautiful Kauri Pine planking

Sunrise is in for her annuals and is in fantastic condition for her age which reflects positively on the love and care the Waller's have for this boat. I am tipping the 4th generation, who is often seen on lake excursions, already has designs on continuing the long love affair with this beautiful boat.

Note:  These pics were taken just after slipping and a short jet blast

Restoration? No - more like a resurrection

My boatyard does not really have a name at the moment. For the previous five years or so I was collaborating with David McCaskill who operated there under the trading name of Wooden Boatworks. However David is currently the Foreman at Gippsland Ports where he and Paul Vernon are doing a great job of building up that facility.

Since the sign came down - we have not put another one up because I am not sure what we should call it.

Paynesville boat centre, Paynesville centre for boat restoration, Reid's boatyard..... However with all the old boats I have collected over the past years I think we might have to call it The Centre for Dead and Dying Boats.  

I can't help myself. If I see something that is heading to a sadder place I cant stop collecting it and 'doing it up one day'.

We also have unofficial competition going - this was allegedly started by Steve Hall who said that the 'man who dies with the most amount of boats - wins'. Sadly Steve, who was a consummate lover of boats, cars and all things classic, died a few years ago and is therefore the current title holder.

Now I am not in a desperate hurry to claim this title - but if something did happen, then I could be in the running for the next title holder. I would like to be remembered for something important.

Anyway the point of this story.....

I would like to include on this blog - boats of significance or that have some history - or both.

The first is Isabel (could be Isobel, Isabelle, Isobelle, Isobell or Isabell)

Isabel is currently located at the front of the yard and if you go past you would have noticed her.  Classic 21ft clinker built, double ended lakes fishing boats. Allegedly built in Paynesville around 1920(?), spent time at Port Franklin or Port Albert and was eventually bought by a Melbourne syndicate who did restore her to sailing trim before sadly ending up in a yard in Williamstown.

As the yard was soon to be sold, she was heading for the knackers and I could not bear to see her cut up, nor could her former owner. So it came to me - hopefully so that 'someone' could 'do her up one day'.

I was happy to pay the $500 for transport - and now she sits - waiting.

Note the hand hewn stern

I would love to see this boat returned to her former glory. There is a sailing rig, prop and shaft and a small amount of hardware. If someone wanted to undertake the task we could come to a very generous arrangement.

If you had a bit of spare cash - then we have a couple of local boat builders who would love to do the work for you, or with you - but this boat is not for the fainthearted or inexperienced. This is not a restoration project - more like a resurrection

If anyone has more history on Isabel I would be pleased to receive it.

What's in the yard at the moment - Jedda

Last week I pulled out a 5.8m fibreglass Cruiscraft for the people from Paynesville's Church on the Water (COTW). COTW is a non denominational gathering that hires out one of the local charter boats on a Sunday to conduct their well attended services. This is quite a novel way of attracting people who love to be on the water and still attend church.

They have had this boat donated as a fundraiser and intend to sell it. It has a 28hp diesel and is now in pretty good condition considering Geoff and his team have been working flat out for the last 10 days scraping, antifouling, reblading the 4 blade prop and detailing the interior.

This is a well found boat and the brand is well known and perfect for the Gippsland Lakes. 

My secret with boats - Buy a Holden Commodore - as in - buy a boat that is well known, there are plenty around, you can more easily determine a price and they are far easier to sell when you have to.

This is a Holden Commodore - not exactly a HSV, but pretty steady and reliable and not that hard to maintain.

If you are interested in this boat please contact Geoff on 03 5156 0737.

Check out Church on the Water

Good things I have discovered with the Internet recently - part 2

Computer users like other things have cliques. PC or MAC, IOS 7 or Windows 20xx etc. In the early days there was a subculture of Amstrad PC8256 owners. I had one of these great machines that had built in word processing software and a dedicated printer, but sadly proprietary software that ended up like dozens of other non Microsoft/apple products.

Luckily I could see the writing on the wall and sold it to a bloke who used to be a mate and finally bought a real Dos based XT computer.

The point of the story....

I am learning about woodturning and have been amazed to discover the woodturners equivalent of Linux (but probably not Amstrad) - pen turning.

Yes -  I had seen the odd bit of wood turned into something nice in souvenir shops and the like, but it is much more than that. I recently went to the Working with Wood Show in Melbourne and had a very interesting time, but what struck me the most was the amount of interest and products supporting the turning of wood and acrylic pens.

This is a huge subset of woodturning that has just amazed me - there are thousands of pen turners out there doing some amazingly beautiful work.

If you don't know anything about this then do a quick google search and check it out. I bought some of the basic tools required but I am not sure I want to get into this myself (my first turning was 600mm across) as it could be one of those crack type orgasm hobbies - you know - once you start you can't stop!

But the supply of timber blanks got me interested. I have made a few tentative inquiries and pleased to report that I have been sending wooden pen blanks all over the countryside by the box full.

I have Fijian Mahogany and Beefwood blanks ready to go.

Fijian Mahogany 

Beefwood

Give us a call if you are interested in them, they are also for sale on ebay and I will be on the lookout for more interesting featured timber to cut into blanks.

One of my customers has a great set of videos on the whole process of pen turning and can supply everything you need to get started.

Good things I have discovered with the Internet recently - part 1

I have been using computers and the internet since the early days. People used to point at me in awe because I had a 20mb hard drive on my brand new XT PC (sadly could not afford hard drive and a colour screen).

My first modem was dial up 28k/hr and real slow, but it at least allowed me to see the early days and some of the wonderful advances in web stuff.

I work part time for the disaster reduction program of a regional organisation called SOPAC which is part of the Secretariat for Pacific Communities. Computer and internet allow me to work between trips, mainly by email with disaster managers and fire and emergency service chiefs all over the Pacific helping to build capacity and capability.

We have been working on building a new alliance of disaster managers, fire and emergency services and police chiefs in the Pacific called PIEMA (Pacific Islands Emergency Management Alliance) and of course we needed a logo.

To be anything fair dinkum in the Pacific you must have a good logo, big banners, t-shirts and a great morning tea for people to start taking you seriously

I was tasked with organising the logo. I used a mob called DesignCrowd which I think is Australian inspired and based. It is a focal point for designers from all over the world and for people, like me, who have NFI (no idea) about design to meet graphic designers and solve each others problems (money = design).

Apart from being a terrific and highly successful idea it worked a treat and before long I had over 20 designers from all over the world submitting designs of various quality for selection and competing for my miserly $200 (+ listing, management fees).

What I really liked about it was that the winning designer Zanu Zawa (ZZ to his/her mates) is a young person who lives on a small island in outback Indonesia who was more than happy to work for my money and I was really happy for him/her to have it. I am sure AUD$200 will be of greater value at his/her place than my place.

btw - here is the winning design:

Now for the morning tea.....

Resurrecting two old chisels

I found these two old inch and a half chisels in a box of stuff I bought at a garage sale a few weeks ago.

With my newfound interest in woodwork, I thought I would do these two up and they could be the start of getting together a 'fine' collection of good tools rather than the pile of stuff that currently exists.

As you can see they are in a pretty sorry state:

One has had its yellow hard plastic handle smashed while the other has been converted to a cold chisel with a metal pipe handle which appears to have had the shite bashed out of it.

I managed to extract the handles without too much damage and wire brushed the blades. One is a Titan chisel while the other has no discernible markings.

I located a nice piece of ironbark and have started turning them down into two handles. The ironbark is pretty hard on my turning tools although my new carbide tip roughing tool still makes mincemeat out of roughing to round.

I am lucky enough to have an older Woodfast wood lathe which I picked up on the bay of E from a high school workshop in the Dandenongs. It is an oldy but a goody and will probably do everything I need from a lathe.

Still need to trim the ends

I also used my new (to me) Hercus lathe to turn down some brass tube into ferrules - for both ends.

Got a bit carried away with a  taper on the ferrules, but they should fit easier.

You can also see the wire brushed chisel which is still showing a bit of pitting but I have not spent to much time cleaning that up yet.

I have been learning a bit lately about sharpening and grinding of hand tools from UOY (University of U-Tube) and have been using my slow rotating white wet stone grinder to slowly grind away the chainsaw looking blade edge.  I need to keep an eye out for a good piece of marble that I can use as a flat surface, but until then the cast iron band saw table is doing a great job.

to be continued.......

Not another blog

Yep - sorry

I wanted a blog to keep up to date with a number of different things that I am doing.

I follow a number of other interesting blogs and I get a lot out of what I learn about specialist topics.

Having recently retired I am knee deep in a thousand different things all competing for my time and attention and I thought I would share some of the projects I am getting involved in.

Specifically I will be writing about:

• What is happening at the boatyard I have in Paynesville, Victoria
• Boats that I really like
• The timber products that I sell at the yard
• What woodworking, metalworking and engineering projects I am currently attempting
• Some of the consulting projects I undertake in the Pacific region.
• Ongoing issues with the old tools and machinery I seemed to be overly interested in.
• Some of the completely useless projects and 'industrial artwork' that takes my fancy.

Feedback is always welcome and you are invited to follow me and share my stories and insights.