Following a referral from my good friend Dick Hannaford at R&J sails, his client Robin called me to explain his requirements.
Firstly, an issue for him was the boom that he had commissioned to be made by the makers of the boat was too short. It meant that he could not get the sail foot tight due to the lack of length of the boom. This would not be an issue for me at JLJ, as experienced cabinetmakers and joinery manufacturers.
Secondly, his existing tiller was quite knocked about and lacking an extension. So the programme was to make a curved extension and totally refinished in a spray marine varnish to the tiler and new extension. The first three pictures show the completed unit, and the last three show the original condition of the tiller.
The tiller had a made up block to take the Auto helm arm, very much over width, bolted with exposed heads and nuts and generally poor work. The finish was a thin, flaking coat of brush varnish, and consequently water had got behind it and stained the Iroko.
First I cut off the existing tiller autohelm block and replaced it with one in the same Iroko, then totally scraped off the varnish ready for respraying. Now to the new work, the making of a curved tiller, with swivel nickel head and at Robin’s request, a ‘handle grip end’.
So all achieved. From receiving the tiller to completion was just 8 days of work. That’s why people call on the experienced personnel to carry high quality, guaranteed work.
The boom, similarly was a straight forward process of firstly totally scrapping the old varnish off, producing the machined scarf jointing and clamping it together with a West Resin system. Then a total re-profiling of the boom and a spray varnish finish. You can see how successfully the boom has been spliced to a longer section to give it the additional length. This is a 400 mm scarf joint using West Resin as the bonding agent.
The next project this coming week for Robin to install onto his Drascombe D2 is a new set of washboards for the deck / saloon entrance.
Keep watching this work in progress and Robin’s story.