It's been a while since my last update but the weather hasn't really been ideal for outdoor boatbuilding.

Activities were also brought to a halt during a particularly windy period when the 'Boatshed' decided to break free of its moorings. I could see it was straining against the teeth of the gale, decided to don the wellies to go and open up the sides to decrease resistance - and then BANG! The wind lifted the structure up, which snapped its mooring lines and disappeared up the driveway, swiping my car on its way out to the main road. This runaway spinnaker was luckily arrested by a stressed looking member of the local constabulary who was attending to a previous accident on said road. It took a few of us to wrestle it back in and to cut a long story short, we were lucky to get away with only superficial damage to cars/boats and people. A decision was made not to re-erect until more clement weather was expected and the Broom has since been shrouded in a boat cover to keep her warm and dry. I've used this downtime to gather together a few more bits n bobs including this rather gorgeous bow light, complete with hole for burgee. The laminate for the deck covering has also been sourced and hopefully work can start on making templates for this and cutting it ready for fitting in the spring. My good lady wife also turned up trumps by buying me a few metres of turquoise vinyl as a Christmas present - yippee! This enabled me to get on with covering the rear panel which hides the battery/fuel compartment.

Incidentally, the vinyl was obtained from www.atmlabel.com in Germany - great service and price.

Covering went smoothly and I grooved the edges of the board and then trimmed them with a white uPVC section to cover any unfinished edges and offer some protection as the board is slid in and out. I'd like to put a word in here for the Classic Motor Boat Association - joining has probably been the best investment I have yet made. There are a number of Broom owners amongst their membership and they have already provided a wealth of information and even an old windscreen as a template so I can fabricate a new one! I have yet to attend any of their social events, but the forthcoming fixture list looks very enticing. So, if you have any interest in old speedboats (which I guess you must as you're reading this) then click the link on the right to head on over to their forum.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and a Happy New Year to all!