Building the Main Beams for my Gypsy catamaran

A catamaran has two identical hulls which are built separately. When the hulls are completed they have to be joined together. To do this two main beams have to be built. The plan calls for using "best quality hardwood" 2 inch by 3 inch to be used. For this special hardwood I was recommended a tropical hardwood BALAU HITAM . This species was recommended to me by a hasher friend and he had been kind enough to select a  matured  tree to saw the timber for me.

The wood is then planned so that the boding with epoxy is better. This is tough work with a hand planner.

The 2 by 3 are laminated with 9 mm ply on the outside and 6 mm ply on the inside.The width of the marine ply is 220 mm. There must be sufficient clamps to get the job done and in boat building there is never sufficient clamps!

Since I do not have sufficient clamps I build the beam in sections of 8 ft. The plywood are joined with a 200 mm ply.

I was hoping that I could save some time by building both the beams together.The first beam on the left came out as predicted with no surprises.

The plan calls for 4 inch screws to be screwed in place at 100 mm apart. I did not like the idea and I propose to use a stainless steel bolt to be bolted through the 2 by 3 s at lesser intervals. This was accepted by the designer Richard Woods.

Now, there is a "little" problem with the second beam on the right. Because of some warping in the timber it became almost impossible to place the other 2 by 3 timber on top.without tearing the plywood. Now, rebuilding the second beam will be another interesting story.

My hulls are perfect!

Normally the hulls are covered with cheap canvas that I purchase from the hardware shop. However about 4 ft of both the hulls protrudes outside my canvas shed. This year has has been an exceptionally wet year and when there is a heavy rain with strong wind water leaks into the forward two compartments.

On a bad day water may even flow to the other compartments. I use this to check if my hulls are completely waterproof without any leaks. Both the hulls passed with flying colours!

Then comes the back breaking task of bailing out the water. Too little to set up a pump and too many squats and back bending to scoop out the water!

And when it is almost dry I will have to use a sponge to take the last drops away. The last few drops I usually leave it to the sun to dry it out. If I had left the hulls uncovered when I go flying and it rains, I will have to repeat the  exercise again! Thank god the dry weather period is here again!

Becoming a Swiftlet Rancher

 My friend had been telling me that this business should be a viable one for retirement. ....Swiftlet Ranching. The crazy Chinese love to take the Bird;s nest as a health supplement. It was supposed to return your fountain of youth. These bird's nest are the collection of the saliva of the swiftlets. And it is VERY expensive. Notwanting to be left out of a lucrative money making chance, I built my first Swiftlet hotel in my orchard.

 The bird house was ready last April . Normally we check on a new birdhouse when it is about 6 months old and then when it reaches 1 year old.

 To attract the swiftlets to the house so that they build their nest in the bird house, recorded bird music has to be played . Although we cannot understand the music, the bird house sifus can know the various type of music

I think we must be playing the correct music as the birds have actually started to build their nest near the speakers.

And after a nice meal with good music they shit in the house! Like a good Boy Scout I was taught a lot about the bird shit today. No bullshitting but the bird experts know a lot from the bird shits.

The fathera nd mother birds are in this nest. Normally the nest is harvested once the birds fly away. The next time we come we will be harvesting some nest.

Canoeing down Sg Nipah

My friend Martin Lee is around this weekend and I so happened to be off from flying this weekend too.He is quite willing to follow me around for some adventures and also to have some exercise.We pedalled our bicycle to Air Jerneh for breakfast yesterday and today we are going to paddle down SgNipah in Ulu Kemaman.   I have been eyeing to get a Perodua Rusa to be converted to a solo campervan and this is a good chance for me to test out the van in rough terrain. So I planned an outing to Sungai Nipah and from there we will canoe down to the village of Ayer Putih(White Water Village)

We drove about 12 km to a small tributary to launch my canoe. This area is in the vicinity of Jeram Gajah(Elephant Rapids). The water here is crystal clear . The rapids here are not too technical but having a novice co pilot means some extra work. in the first rapid we had to dismount from the canoe and push a little. I was careless and I hurt my right leg when I banged against a rock whilst trying to manoeuvre the canoe.

After the bad stretch of rapids the journey was more pleasant. The current was about 4 to 5 Km per hour and with a bit of paddling we were doing a little faster than that. However, the river meanders a lot so the straight line distance covered is very little.

This is Martin Lee, normally a weekend husband in Kuala Lumpur

I believe he is having a reasonably good time here.

By the time we arrived Air Puteh village I was supposed to ride my mountain bike to the launching point to collect the van. Dark clouds were looming every where so i tried my old trick of stopping a motorist and paying him some money to take me up to the van. This time I paid RM 15 to a villager to send me up .All in all we had a wonderful wseekend and this was ended with a good dinner in River View Restaurant.

My thoughts when flying over the sea......

A lot of misinformed people when they come to know that I am an Offshore helicopter pilot would ask me if this is the most boring job in the world. I can tell you defintely the anwer is NO and I am in the position to say so because I have been flying offshore for more than 27 years. It is actually moments of boredom until something happens and as professional pilots we are always prepared for the unexpected.So this means that although our bodies looks relaxed but our minds are working every minute of the flight. I always ask questions and answer them myself in my thoughts. Basic questions are:
How is the weather ahead? Do I have to divert around any weather? Is it better to go lower or higher?
Who else is flying around me ? somewhere within a radius of 10 nm? However nowadays with TCAS2 we are very well informed on this matter.
What is the prevaling wind like? I want to be prepared so that in the unlikely event that I have to ditch I can point into wind. Are there any boats around me? Where was the last boat? Nice to know all these.
How is my machine humming along? Is it taking the right amount of fuel?
Does it smell right? Anything unusual? In flying one has to be very observant both in sight, smell and sound.
How are the passengers doing behind? Most of the time they sleep ..an activity that I do not encourage. Your chances of survival isl esser if you are sleeping enroute and something bad happens.
ALWAYS.. I think of a diversion if something goes wrong. Have we passed the nearest rig? What about nearest airfield?

So the typically 3 hours flight I work FULL TIME mentally!

Taking my Dogs for a swim

I live next to the Chukai river in the swamps and I have a small boat which I can just push to the river when I in the mood for some fun on the water. My faithful dogs can almost read my mind all the time. They will happily wait for me to push the boat down. The dogs love to go for a swim. Even if I dont go in they will just disappear to the swamps and bark at the monkeys around.First they will hang on by the side of the river. They seemed to be looking at me and plead to get into the small boat. The answer is always NOOnce I am on the water they will swim around the boat. This is sort of a warm up for them. Normally they will bark excitedly as I paddle away.Seems to be saying "Hey wait for me lah"In a way I am very happy to have such a pair of faithful dogs. Nobody in my family likes to follow me to the river except for the dogs!

Building the Rudder Attachment Strong Point

It looked very confusing in the plans. I had to email the designer Richard woods for some clarifications. He was kind enough to send me a simplified drawing. The monsoon is almost over and we have been having some dry days. I started building my Gypsy again yesterday.
First the excess fibre that was deliberately made had to be trimmed off.
All the area had to be roughened so that epoxy binds the wood to the boat strongly.
Next the 3" by 1" hardwood had to be cut to size. The rudder hinges attaches through the transom and into these wood so that the pressure from the weight of the rudders are distributed over a wider area. The corners of the hard wood had to be rounded so that when a layer of cloth is applied over it less air bubbles are formed.It is hard work but I enjoy the torture! When building my catamaran my thought are almost always my thousand kilometers from where I am.Since the knee which is made from 9mm marine ply has some odd angles I had to use a cardboard to make a template so that it fits well.
After all the wood had been cut to size they are glued on to the transom using epoxy. Clamps are used to hold the wood in position and to give a better bond by applying pressure to the wood.
Done..all it needs now is a layer of 600/225 gm biaxial cloth.