As Tom has reported in his email to me just recently, Jojo is now out of the water on the hard at the Nice Marina. Following the successful delivery to him in December of a full keel band, made in a jointed format so it was acceptable for length as a shipment, he gained the help of a pal and between them they cut out the old keel band, cleaned the hull back to gel coat, fitted the new 2-section keel band and would you believe it applied 2 coats of anti-foul primer within that 48 hour period. They did have the help from the weather on the Mediterranean coast however, it was 26°C. A lot better than trying to work outside in the UK at 5°C!
Tom was aware from the JLJ website that I made flooring for the Drascombe range of boats, so taking a good look at the very poor condition that Jojo’s flooring was in, why not go for it and order a full 5 section flooring system from JLJ? As with all our joinery items they are available within 7 days turnaround from order to receipt. Where else would you get that sort of professional order response, only at JLJ, Dragon Design.
Just as a reminder for Drascombe owners what is involved in the manufacturing of a set of 5 section flooring for a Lugger.
I’ll illustrate from the completed floor sections first and then go through the making process. It is evident that the flooring is virtually knot free, it is indeed a Pine species.
It’s classification as a timber is Unsorted Red Wood. An Upper Gulf Finnish timber, very close grain, knots of no more than 12 mm dia, and air-dried to 12% humidity. A great stable timber to work with and gives excellent results. Like everything in life it’s not the cheapest of materials, but for Drascombe owners on their pride and joy it has to be worth going that extra mile to achieve a superb result in fitting a new flooring section.
From the sawn boards of the Unsorted Redwood I plane and thickness it to 148 x20 mm, this being the plank size. As you can see from patterns I’m able to dimension each section.
We now move onto the stage of fitting the underside straps, all machined and sanded with chamfered edges. The fixing screws are A4 S/S. It is now noted that I use the West Resin System to act as a bonding agent along with the screws to pull up the straps onto the flooring boards.
This corner strap outlines the quality of the machining and shape of the strap to conform to the curvature of the flooring
This review of a flooring section of the Lugger just outlines the lengths I go too in order to create a very durable, long lasting and extremely well fitting floor for your Drascombe boat. Make to this high standard and it will ensure that these straps will not deteriorate and drop off, leaving you with a dysfunctional flooring in the bottom of your Lugger. That’s what I do at Dragon Design, make joinery properly to a high standard, hence the company is now in its 41st successful year of trading. What more can I say.