Changing Times, Changing Places

I can't believe it's been two years since I updated this blog. I did say from the outset that this would be a very slow restoration, but not even I thought it'd be this glacial. 

If its any consolation, it has been a pretty action packed couple years. And believe it or not, things have improved significantly for poor old Sentina. 

Not long after my last post, I set up the tarp to provide a bit of shade (gets bloody hot here in summer) and had a go with my new grinder and respirator. The tool worked well, the respirator perhaps not so well. I could smell the ground gelcoat and even taste it, so I soon stopped. I'm not sure how I'm going to keep from inhaling this toxic shit, short of installing an expensive extraction set up. How do professional boatbuilders not die an early death from exposure to this stuff? 

New weapon

Works well (almost too well)

The spread of this sort of lovely carcinogenic materials into the atmosphere was another motivation to halt works. Our neighbours house was only about three meters from the fun, so it seemed pretty irresponsible to continue. 

It was during this period that the urge to relocate our family home was growing stronger. Unima Beach has always been an idyllic beachside village, and we've been incredibly lucky/privileged to raise our family there. But the area has changed heaps over the years, and of late its become more of a northern suburb of Sydney. Ridiculously busy and a lot of unsavoury characters flooding in. And more and more rules controlling everything (can't walk your dogs on the anymore? WFT!) Added to this was the sad passing of my father in law. It was becoming obvious that it was time to move on. 

I'd been searching the length and breadth of the Hunter Valley over the years for appropriate places, and finally an ideal candidate just fell into our laps. A bit further out from Newcastle than we'd intended, but not too far (only 1hr to work - and the waters Sentina will ultimately be calling home), it was just too perfect to pass up. 

We took the leap and bought this 33 acre property, which backs onto our own private 1200 acre nature reserve. It even has it's own lookout, with magnificent views out over the upper Hunter. Plus we got it for a proverbial song.

New digs. No worries with noise & dust from the boat here.

Slice of heaven in the upper Hunter Valley

Celebration time

Had a great camp with a couple mates from work on the day our purchase became official (top blokes, top night)








Well as soon as we got home from a couple great trips to USA/Hawaii, we got ready to sell our house. It sold within weeks, and we got a great price (the flip side of the area becoming an extension of Sydney). We found a rental place on the outskirts of Newcastle, and commenced moving out. 

I had to relocate Sentina to somewhere temporarily until i could get a decent shed built for her. Luckily a mate of ours owns a caravan park nearby, and kindly agreed to let us keep her there (along with our camper trailer and my half finished canoe). I called in the same people I used before to bring her up from Sydney. 

She flies again

New temporary home for the poor old girl

After quite a few months, the guy needed his hire cradle for another job. Luckily I'd already come up with an idea for a cradle of my own, and had just finished getting it built. Its a design I saw on the English Folkboat Association's website ( http://folkboats.co.uk/services/trailers.html ). These guys had designed this cradle for Folkboats and provided storage and transport for them. Since the CO26 is basically a Folkboat, I contacted them and asked if I could buy a set of plans to build one. Cost me a fair bit, and the drawings were barely legible with lots of info missing, but I finally got something workable (I thought). 

New cradle so could return hired one

Not quite right

I picked up the cradle and took it to the boat. The crane arrived and we tried to put it onto the new cradle but discovered the people who built it didn't follow the design properly and the arms weren't long enough. I was absolutely spewing.

After much back/forth with them, they finally came up with four steel extensions for the arms. After getting the crane back (again), we got the boat to sit in the new cradle, but now the extensions are just a bit too long. Grrr!

The crane was due for another job, so I didn't have time have them lift it again while I hacked a bit off each extension. The front part of the keel seems to be sitting on the block ok, but the rear of the keel is up in the air with the weight taken by the pads holding up the quarters. Luckily most of the weight is in the front of the keel.

You can just see the gap at the rear of the keel

My options now seem to be either pay for the crane to come back (yet again) and lift her whilst I whip around with a grinder to shorten the extensions, or else carefully jack the hull up and build up the keel blocks before adjusting the pads up to the new height. Either way, not ideal and it's turned out to be way more of a hassle/expense than I'd anticipated.

As I've left her. The other covered thing is my camper trailer with canoe on top. 

Anyway that's where I'm up to now. I head down every now and then to check on her, she seems to be comfortable enough. The rest of my time (when not at work) has been spent working our house & shed designs and getting everything ready to get the new property set up. 

Our builder is just about ready to get stuck in, so hopefully we'll have a shed built within the next couple months. Then the fun will begin as I try to sort out her cradle and somehow move the whole lot up to her new home. It's going to be a major milestone finally getting the boat out of the weather, and into somewhere I can actually work on her. Mind you, that part (working on her) probably won't be for a while yet. We've got a house to build and a farm to set up now, so I doubt much will happen to her this year. 

Now 2019 on the other hand …