Wednesday, May 30 saw what must have been close to a record turnout for us with about nineteen people in attendance. This may not sound much but it meant bringing in extra chairs to the Committee Room at South of Perth and almost overflowing it. A great evening!

The speaker on the night was Craig Wilson, on the subject of regular boat maintenance, which he used to practise as a business at FSC. It now turns out that Craig is the mystery boat builder looking for new premises as referred to by Harry Speight in the last issue of this newsletter. The problem is still not solved and Harry may still be driving around in the East when this comes out, so if any member knows of a suitably large site for lease they could ring Craig on 0448 990 323, or failing that, myself on 9397 6209. Don't forget, space could be available for members' projects in any new site.

In particular reference to fibreglass, everyone seemed to want to know about osmosis and Craig had several enlightening and horrifying pictures to illustrate this. Basically the only cure is to grind off the old gelcoat, under which it forms, clean everything up and replace by hand from on top - a slow process.

Aluminium hulls are particularly prone to electrolysis attack, as are propellor and rudder fittings in any hull, and need to be protected with just the right number of sacrificial anodes. Even leaving dropped fish hooks in the bilge of an alloy hull can lead to serious e. attack, even holes.

Above the waterline we leave antifouling behind but we strike the problems of cleaning off oxidation from paint and gelcoat and the latter is good for only about 15 - 20 years before it's best to paint over, preferably with a two-pack poly or similar. Star crazes in the gelcoat often indicate the beginnings of osmosis. Safety is another point to consider here, with security of stanchion fastenings for lifelines, cracked welds, etc.

Craig had an excellent power point presentation for us and it should be easy to write up, but it's not. He covered just so much stuff it's difficult to know where to start. The talk was set out in sections such as Below and Above Waterline, Topsides, Electrics, etc, etc, so let's look at those, briefly.

For Below Water Craig offered various types of hull construction for detail and despite the preponderance of wooden boats in our group, the greatest interest was shown in other materials, particularly fibreglass! Maybe f/g just has so many interesting malaises. As far as painting goes, Craig's recommendation for undercoats was epoxy all the way - nothing else is waterproof enough. When it came to antifouling he tended to mourn the banning of the old, effective tributyl types and warned against coming under the spell of advertising of Northern Hemisphere products, many of which are ineffective in our different waters. One very useful hint he offered was to antifoul each season with a different colour. As most of us know, antifoul washes off gradually with waterflow - that's how it works. A different colour underneath starts to show through when the current coat is wearing thin and it's time for more.

Topsides, cabins and decks were all covered in Craig's comprehensive talk. He mentioned few products by name but one exception was Kleenahull, a mild acid good for doing what its name implies. When it comes to non-skid surfaces he only considered laying up one's own with grit in deck paint, not gelcoat, preferred. Craig had no comment on the commercial, glue-down types of non-skid.

With Electrics (just about everyone's nightmare) he warned us to be very wary of additions to original wiring harnesses, no doubt because of the difficulty of joining new wire to old and so on. We should always use tinned wire (not readily available from car parts shops) and seal all connections with heatshrink or epoxy. Craig much prefers crimping joins to soldering them. Solder can crack under vibration and is prone to dry joints. Once again electrolysis reared its ugly head. It can work not only within one's boat, but also between boats or boat and shore especially if you're using shore-based power, such as for automatic bilge pumps and so on. A difference in potential of 0.5 to 0.7 volts is a serious one. The best solution to electrolysis problems is to keep all metals the same, but that's seldom possible - stainless prop shafts in bronze bearings and so on. However, earthing of all skin fittings is a good start. He did mention Luke Jenkins of Norma Rd, Myaree, as being one sparky with a very good grasp of the problems of electrolysis.

And Craig's preferred varnish? It's an oil finish from, I think, Denmark, known as Deks Olje, because it penetrates the timber very well whereas conventional finishes merely form a skin over the top before finally flaking off. All in all Craig presented a very wide ranging talk which inspired a great deal of discussion and questions. All members were very interested. We are indebted to him for a very interesting and informative evening.

On Saturday, June 9 we made a trip to a place near Ravenswood (between Mandurah and Pinjarra) where President Bob Walsh is working rapidly on a large launch project with a great deal of assistance from our Librarian and resident Kiri strip-plank expert, Mike Rogers. The vessel is a 10m launch from the pen of Sydney designer, David Payne, and it manages to make quite a large shed look very small. You're not likely to build this one by the side of the house (although we've seen some projects in that situation). Fortunately Bob lives quite close by on the canals at South Yunderup, and so commutes to the shed fairly readily. He has a wharf at the foot of the garden to tie it up, and his own slipway for drying out in winter - bliss!

Not a great deal of ABBA members turned up, maybe they felt they couldn't afford the petrol, but this was made up for by a large number of other visitors and we may recruit some these. As it was, Bob didn't even know them all - it must have been word of mouth. As it turned out, the visit was well worth the drive.

The boat is to be finished as a classic trawler launch with pilot house and Bob will feel very fine standing in the house as he charges around the canals and the River Murray. His only worry? That, tied up at the foot of the garden, the new boat will get in the way of the natural view he already enjoys. Some people have it tough. The launch is very capacious and must have a high displacement, yet will be very light in Kiri strip plank, so a fair bit of ballast is called for.

There are already a pair of lead bilge keels under her, of 200kg each, and the form work for a pre-stressed concrete centre keel/deadwood is on the floor ready for pouring. This will be even heavier and include, cast in, the prop-shaft log as plastic pipe.

Mike and Bob started work only four months ago, making the frames, erecting them and skinning them in 100mm by 19mm Kiri strips to produce the completed hull shape. The planks were faired down with a hydraulically driven rotational sanding machine lent by Mike's brother, Keir. This has the flexibility to conform to all curves and although still needing muscle, certainly beats torture boards.

The planks having been glued together with one-pot Purbond polyurethane adhesive (quite strong enough with the large gluing surfaces), it was then 'glass sheathed with Boatcraft Pacific's Contract Epoxy (not BoteCote) and filled with white Q-cells. There was still a fair bit of dust from this stuff around - hope my camera survives. And that, dear reader, represents only four months' work for these two. The boat was turned over one week before we got there. It was wheeled upside down out of the shed, lifted off the jig and rotated upright between a couple of bobcats, with pivot pins temporarily inserted in holes in the stem and the stern - simple. Then it was rolled on pipes back into the shed, where it will only fit diagonally, incidentally, and propped up on sheer legs with braces clamped across the beam in about three places to hold the shape.

The next stage will be internal 'glass sheathing, bulkheads, furniture and decking, probably in that order. Bob's already acquired a new, Chinese diesel of 65hp (Payne specifies only about 38hp, so it will be more than ample at displacement speeds of around 10 knots), and that will have to go in sometime, too. Bob's optimistic estimate of reaching lock-up stage and launching is October! I suspect he intends to complete final details while moored at the foot of his own garden. Let's hope he doesn't go too fast because we'll want another visit to view it closer to completion date, just to see how it's turned out.

It was a great visit, thanks Bob (and Mike) and Bob's wife Ruth, and thanks too, for the very welcome afternoon tea which was put on. We'll certainly be there again if asked.