This week has probably been the most eventful to date, and I’m not just talking about Esper’s progress. On Wednesday half of Chebilang turned out to watch a fishing boat burn right down to its hull, whilst a ferry bottoms out when being jacked up on a cradle. Other breakages include feet and motorbikes

Weekly Video Round-Up

Best video update so far, IMHO. Mainly because I managed to capture some fantastic footage of the boat going up in flames.

Deck Fittings

Biggest job this week was sorting out the deck fittings. Some were redrilled after epoxying the old holes and we’ve pretty much located most of the fittings. Meanwhile Tui set to and made new grab handles and teak beds for the cleats.

Tui and one of the completed hand rails

Ton, meanwhile, successfully installed the startboard shroud fittings in the port side, which meant he forced a couple into holes they were never designed for. We had to send one U-bolt to the workshop to get straightened, only to find it needed to be angled in order to get into the correct hole. You just can’t win!

Laying out the deck fittings

Ton cleans up some of the bolts whilst Moo pulls a funny face

Preparing the transom

With the swimming platform going through the transom we had to make some preparations, not least cutting the holes correctly. We tasked Pong with that job since he has the steadiest hand and an eye for detail.

Swimming platform goes through the transom

The hole is cut slightly smaller and then sanded to the correct size

Moo, meanwhile, epoxy’s backing plates on both the transom and the lazarette box.

The transom is reinforced with a teak backling plate that is fibre-glassed into place

Fishing boat catches fire

The biggest news this week came from the yard next door. An over-zealous welder started a fire on a freshly painted fishing boat and it was gutted within the hour.

More Photos

I’m continuing with my yard photography project. Here’s a few more from the collection:

What’s Next?

The deck fittings have almost been placed into their positions, but we’ve yet to bed them down. That’ll take pretty much all of next week.