Floats down to Earth.

It’s been a long time since we hung the first float under the roof, followed by the second one. All those years they have collected only dust but now they can come down again.

Something has changed.

The port float is hanging above and behind the boat. To bring down the port float I first had to make room next to the boat. The boat has to slide sideways to create ample maneuver space for the forklift. With the help of two pallet jacks the boat easily slides sideways.

With a makeshift boat-stand clamped to the forklift I carefully lifted the float, unscrewed the tensioning straps the floats were hanging in and bring it down. However, maneuvering with forklift and boat only takes one way. The port float is still looking in the wrong direction but turning is not possible because of lacking space. The workshop crane brings the solution.

In the free space somewhere in the middle of the workshop height, I can turn the boat in the right direction and bring it back to the position at the port side of the center hull.

The other float is much easier to reach and is already hanging in the right direction. There is still not enough maneuvering space for the forklift but taking it over by the workshop crane brings the float to its position at the starboard side of the center hull.

After all the dust has been removed, the first work is putting the floats upside down for applying the Coppercoat anti-foul.

Update of Fram’s webcam video (time lapse)

Enlarging Fram’s berth.

Together with the new house (and reason for buying it) came a private berth in line with the backyard, but much too small. However, the width of the property is enough to make the berth wider and for this the two poles had to be repositioned into a suitable distance of 9.75m (32′). Today that has been fixed. Click on the image below to see the work.

Happy New Year !

A new year, a new home, a new workshop, a new website ………..
a new start.

By signing the contract of sale on last Monday December 28 we became the owners of our new home in Lelystad. The building project has been moved to the new workshop in Huizen and now we are in the middle of moving all our stuff from the old house to the new one. So, it is a very busy time for us with not much time left for the boatbuilding. Next update will take a while I’m afraid.

Fram’s website remains alive but I thought it became high time for a refreshment of the update approach by means of a blog. This instead of the logbook in the homepage of http://www.fram.nl

I still get a lot of email with questions and advice about my boatbuilding activities and it is a pity this information was not shared with other interested website followers. This blog gives the oppertunity to make comments on posts and that is a much better way to share valuable information instead of keeping this for myself or the questioner in private emails.

So please, do comment on these posts. I’ve imported all the logbook items into this blog so you can still make a comment on the older ones.

An email subscription option has been added in the right sidebar. This allows readers to sign-up and receive emails when new posts are published on the Fram Project. The subscriber can select how often this email is sent (the delivery frequency – immediate, daily, or weekly), as well as when this email is sent (the delivery window – a specific day and hour). This is an excellent way to keep in touch with the Fram Project.

Moving to another workshop.

An exciting day today, moving the mainhull out of the workshop in Hilversum and to the new workshop in Huizen.

Changes.

To all who were waiting for an update, sorry for the lack of progress lately. I haven’t had a lot of time nor the energy to work on the boat lately and it looks like 2009 will end as a bad building year (latest update figures time and cost Oktober 11).

In the meantime we made a rather big alteration on the house but not without a lot of struggling with the hometown building authorities. It seems I have patent on this and in fact we are still struggling with them.

While sitting in the sunny garden this summer and looking at the successful work we did on the house we decided to cross out the idea of once moving to our “Dreamhouse”. That dream was living near the water with the boat along the garden jetty. This kind of villa’s were always far above our budget. However, it is a buyers market nowadays and while having peace with the decision to give up this apparently not realistic dream, last week that once in a lifetime opportunity came along. A radical turnover lead today in buying a house with a private harbor on the South side of the IJsselmeer, without any bridges or locks to pass and with plenty of room (33’x40′) for the unfolded F39, very rare in this little country.

This also answers the question that several friends and colleagues had asked me before, “where the heck will you moor such a large yacht?”
Being optimistic (one of the necessary qualifications of a part-time boat builder) my standard answer has always been, “no idea, time will tell!”
Well, now we know 🙂 

So, I have to give up my cozy workshop and will continue the building in the workshop of the company I work for. Much more room, but also not at home, which was a major condition to undertake this huge building project. This of course is a temporal solution with the necessity of getting in a hurry. This means from now on I will focus on finishing the F39 on the outside and get her in the water to tie her up along the jetty of our new home. Further work on interior, hardware and rigging will be delayed till she is at home again.
I now have a house with a big garage (or small workshop) for sale ….. anyone?

Controlled Vacuum Infusion.

It has been quiet here lately, but I’ve been busy with a lot of things. Among these finally the realization of the so much desired workshop extension. And furthermore my discovery of the Controlled Vacuum Infusion technique and the surprise this is something for me !! The infusion is controlled by a simulation in a 3D model.

My workshop at home.

Today I made some pictures of my workshop and the F-36 float frames. I purchased the F-36 plans first and was lucky to get the used form frames from Gary Mulder’s F-36. With some modifications they are useable for the F-39 floats too, but I preferred to make new ones. First step is the setup of  the temporary frames for the outer side of the port float.

I hope to learn the tricks in this one as this side is a little easier to make than the inner side.