Steelwork finished ...

The boat's steelwork is now finished, and work remains on installation of the engine, with the details below recorded on 3 November 2012 ...

The beautiful shape of the Norton Canes anser pin ... look at the "nails", and on the dolly below  ...

The engine installation is well underway, and it looks fabulous now it's in situ in the boat ... and note the temporary bulkhead that has been put in place so that we can sail the boat around to the boat fitters.

Another work of art in the "swan's neck", or "ram's head" as some others refer to it.

Getting near to completion ...

We visited the yard at Norton Canes on 1 October 2012 and the following pictures show the progress so far, with the shell nearly complete but with quite a bit to do now on commissioning the engine, and lost of other jobs like temporarily fitting mushroom vents and portholes, and of course grit blasting.

September 2012 progress

We visited the yard at the beginning of September and set out below are some pictures of the current progress:

The wonderful bow shape of the Norton Canes shell, an absolute work of art.

The tug deck, which extends for 8 feet in length.

Progress on shell

This is the progress of the boat shell as at 3 August 2012 ...

Shell progress of June 2012

Here is the engine attached to temporary engine beds, which will shortly be lowered into position on its permanent hardwood beds (which are built transversely according to the Kelvin requirements).

The above picture shows the dollies and rudder stock.  Note the attention to detail on the dollies and the way that they are mounted through the steel work via the small plinth.
  

Above is the renowned Norton Canes rudder stock cap ... or whatever the official name is for it! ... which looks fabulous.

Here is the boat rudder, which is a huge piece of steel but which is balanced superbly ... and it's no coincidence, this is the result of a great deal of boatbuilding experience and skill.  Note also the solid bar section which forms the skeg.

The engine heads to Norton Canes

The picture on the left shows the engine packed and ready for the journey to Norton Canes, which took place at the end of May 2012.  It wasn't an easy job as the engine hoist wasn't anywhere near big enough, but with the skills of the father-in-law we managed to get the engine to the yard (also courtesy of a trailer from Barlows Trailers)

This shows the gearbox linkage system which Dick has rigged up for the engine.  I tried to find the original casting and rang Seward Engineering but, not surprisingly, they didn't have one in stock!  Dick's arrangement, once painted, will look the part and will do the job really well.

Here's the engine with the gear linkage system, which of course allows the engine to be moved forward and reverse from trad controls at the rear of the boat.

The shell begins to take shape ...

We visited Norton Canes on 28 May 2012 to drop the engine off with Graham and Tony, and to take a look at progress with the shell.  The pictures below show the current state of play, with a nice close up of the counter (and great picture of Tony!):