The Birth of a 'Centennial Spray' in New Zealand!

We have now finished the coating of the fo'c'sle. The entire surface has been finished with a 2-pot polyurethane lacquer (including the deck beams). The deck beams through the rest of the yacht will be finished bright. Note the very sturdy sampson posts, which run right to the inner stem, and are fastened to the forward side of the chainlocker. These are fashioned from Jarrah, an Australian hardwood. The ply panels resting on top of the posts are the cabin side combings, which have been scarphed and fitted. These will be permanently fixed after the sidedecks are in place, and the motor has been installed. The next step will be to fix the foredeck into place: the underside of the deck panels have already been finish painted, after masking out the deck beams, deck clamp and breast hook. The ballast keel has been dry-fitted to the keel deadwood, and only awaits the arrival of the bronze keel bolts before it can be permanently fitted.

All of the side deck beams have been completely varnished, in preparation for the fitting of the sidedeck panels. As is the case with the foredeck, all of these panels have already been painted, after first masking out the location of side deck framing. Note that the bulkheads have now been trimmed down to final coachhouse height. The cabin doorways have yet to be trimmed to final size and shape.

Our two whisker chainplates have been polished in preparation for drilling and final fitting. As with most of the castings for our yacht (including all of the chainplates, bow fittings, rail fittings etc), these have been cast in Aluminium Bronze from our own patterns by a local foundry, and polished in house.

The foredeck, sidedecks and aft deck have now been permanently fitted. All of these areas will have laid teak as a finish surface, while the cabin top will be painted. Note the starboard cabin top carlin, which has been dry fitted. The port cabin top carlin is lying on top of the bulkheads, along with the cabin side combings. All of these will be finally fitted once the motors have been installed.

The underside of the sidedecks is an illustration of the final finish of the cabin top. All of the Silky Oak deck and cabin beams will be finished bright in this way, with several coats of epoxy timber preserver and 4-5 coats of high quality single-pack polyurethane. The underside of the decks has been sprayed with a satin finish two-pack polyurethane. The beams and ply were finished separately, and the gluing process was completed very carefully, to provide for a very crisp finish. The prefinishing process will simplify the process of painting and varnishing later! Note the provision for a deck prism: this opening will be routed to size and the prism fitted later in the building process.