Introduction of a reformed GRP user.

[Ricsudukai]

Hi all.

Having been allowed to join this group with the probably completely undeserved title of Jack Tar, I shall attempt to immediately damage my reputation by describing some of the cruel damage I am currently inflicting on otherwise harmless, trusting and ultimately defenceless small boats.

I have a Hartley TS 18. Some bits are rotten. I just checked, nothing has fixed itself yet. Any way it is up the back of the yard, and there is a slight headwind from that direction so i won't touch that this weekend.

I have some Herons too. I started with one but they seem to fly into my yard for the winter to roost, so now I have, um, a few. I had to think there but there are barely three here at the moment, as the other five are somewhere else. Somewhere else is an interesting place, while they don't self repair sometimes the easily influenced can be tricked into doing things to them. That is most fun to me when it doesn't involve damage. I have noticed it never gets them varnished though. Having finally got my good one (that's the one in my avatar) working so well that I sailed the last couple of weekends in the season brilliantly and competitively - I shall now strip it, lose at least three fittings and cut some bits off. That is because it is too heavy, my wife suggests that if I stopped drinking beer that would make a bigger difference. I think that would just mean I would lose the will to live and have no more than golf to look forward to. Golf reminds me of gardening, and gardening gets in the way of boating, so golf is very depressing as a game. That is why I drink - so I can play with boats. It is also why I suffer anxiety attacks if I find a golf ball. And boats make my beard look good too.

I also have to tell you that I am a recovering GRP user. I'm not fully cured (unlike my patches) as I still have a few Fibreglass boats tucked away in various places, but I promise not to use them in front of you. Some do have wooden decks, so there is some hope for me. GRP stinks, and it smells bad too. I find epoxy strangely attractive - but choosing a block or a shackle can occupy me for an hour in a boat shop too....

Instead of making a lot of money I have worked on boats for a few years now, as crew, professional fisherman, painter, fitout, maintenance, owner - and an indentured slave from the age of very tiny for all the bright work on the various spars and fiddly bits for all the family boats. For some reason I am very fast at varnishing - I think that is so it is over quicker.

I also managed a Mastercraft level design and art investment facility, called Constantia for a few years. That allowed me to learn a bit about finishes and fine cabinetry. This just means my wife thinks I hate her because we have op-shop furniture and I can build nice things. I find furniture making, like car maintenance and haircuts gets in the way of sailing, so avoid those activities.

I have an opinion on everything, but mostly only discuss boats and boating - as politics and religion only make people want to hit me.

I am inventing a cradle on gimbles for the front of my boat - I noticed a small baby in the club last evening and have a cunning plan to get my crew weight down to less than 10 kg. The vapours from the wine cask bladders fitted as floatation will keep the kid quiet so I can concentrate on not coming last. The sailing committee seemed unsure so I might see if cats are legal.

[Mike]

Hi Ric and, again, welcome aboard the good ship BBJW.

I thoroughly enjoyed your thread starter above, thanks. Very sharp sense of humour you have. You will make an excellent Jack Tar, don't you worry.

Incidentally, I did some flying around your way in my early days. The job was tuna spotting using a Cessna 337 push/pull job. My spotter was based there in Lincoln and could identify the fish species in a shoal from 500 feet above. Wish I could say it was a fun job but the idea was to find the fish for the Safcol Tuna fishing fleet and then stooge around over the fish for hours until we had our guys among them on the water. This was done by shutting down one donk and flying in circles while transmitting headings for the boats.

I did manage to study morse code and basic gas turbines while doing that. Heh heh.

As to your GRP experience, I have very little so an expert in the field is doubly welcome here, no probs.

I see we can look forward to a little fun in your posts, which is great.

Best wishes

[Ricsudukai]

Ooo - I'm not an expert, I know far too much to claim any expertise.

I have however an extensive list of sequential failures and disaster anecdotes for the edification of the easily influenced.

I have proven Murphy's first and second law enough now that he has become bored and wandered off to play with both the Oz and Pom Labour parties.

The reason most things I work on now work better after - is because I have tried all the other ways first, often several times.:banghead:

I had a friend 25 or so years ago who was given the opportunity to become a spotter. He lasted a week - kept falling asleep - even when they poked him a lot. We thought he was lazy and a fool, he could have got his commercial pilots license for nix. In the end he was lazy, still is, and is a great example on how no matter how useless you are having millionaire parents is still the best plan should you want security. :eyebrows:

[Mike]

Precisely, Ric, which is what I said: all that qualifies you as ... ummm ... an EXPERT. :rofl:

As JohnW often says: "A 'professional' (read 'expert') is one whose mistakes are well hidden before anyone gets to see 'em." Or words to that effect.

I don't much like epoxy. It's 'orrible sticky stuff that seems to get itself all over you in one way or another whether you like it or not. I'm going to need a few new casual clothes - and that's only after building a little eight footer.

For that reason alone, I am never likely to become an expert. Come to that, I'm daft enough to photograph the mistakes I make so that others can avoid them. Nope, never going to qualify as a 'professional' or even an 'expert'.

Tell ya what, cobber, If you come over to Blighty I'll let you do all my epoxying on the next build. And you are welcome to it. There's only one thing I like even less than epoxying and that's sanding off epoxy. How people can stand wearing a face mask in hotter climates is quite beyond me. Bad enough here where the weather has wound itself back to about last February, without thinking temperatures in excess of 100 degrees F.

Warming up again here soon - to about the mid teens in temperature. Somewhere around the average winter temperatures in Western Australia as I recall. :rolleyes:

All the best

[George Waite]

Mike
I have found that some cheapo paper coveralls keep most of the nasty sticky stuff at bay. Also get hold of a "Toolstation" catalogue, they are doing some great mail order deals at the moment. You also have the convenience of sales counters in Bridgewater and Bristol. I also posted a reply to your ships cat remark in albums.

[Ricsudukai]

Depends on which bit of W.A. or most other states in Oz you're talking about regarding temperature - From where I live in South Oz, it is 27 hours driving at 110 km/h just to get to Kalgoolie. The southern coasts are fairly mild most of the year, relatively speaking, but there is a lot of Australia. Disposable overalls, doubled pairs of nitrile gloves and lots of Op-Shop clothing is the go. I use top end breathing filters - and am experimenting with a mouthpiece and filters behind my neck to cope with my beard. http://www.resp-o-rator.com/ - actually trying to get some of these as a bit of a specialist thing, but finding the potential market is a little interesting and widespread. Not much point in importing a bunch of stuff for fun, got to make some profit just to cover the costs. We'll see.

[George Waite]

Ric
A useful looking piece of kit made from easily available components but it is (as I am sure you know) only a particulate (dust) filter.

[Ricsudukai]

Depends on the filters you fit - on contacting the manufacturer of this resp-o-rator it appears they supply their own filters, not off the shelf ones, that is my reason for considering a version that will accept standard off the shelf vapour and particulate filters.