Big Developments!

Right folks, in the last week we've had some major progress made, first, our new sails have arrived! For £150 we have a gorgeous set of pentax sails in grey and red. As well as the sails we also picked up an undercover, which although described as needing 'a bit of work with a sowing machine' has turned out to be in fabulous condition and has been put onto the boat in the garden to keep it nice and safe and toasty!

Also, we have nearly finished rebuilding the gunnels and the deck, only one more tube of gelcoat required i think! Once thats finished, we have a arranged for Dogmatic to be moved into the BLYM workshop for painting, and we hope to move it in early Dec/Late Nov. 

Work on the spars, cleaning, painting and anything else start work hopefully this weekend, where we hope to be able to commandeer the BLYM container (usually used for storing single hander sails), which has a nice long, thin indoor floor that we can hopefully use for painting the mast and boom(s). Photos to follow shortly, as soon as i can find that bloody camera!

Hiya everyone! sorry i havent been posting lately, ive had a few personal/family issues that have had to be resolved so havent had much time to work on the 12. Anyways, work resumed a few nights ago and we have sanded back and started re-gelcoating the gunnels (the sides for all ye landlubbers) still have a lot of work to do, especially after dave chiselled a hole in the decks! hehe! Also booked our sailing clubs workshop for winter for painting, and then we are picking the new sails up on Nov 1/2. Got lots planned and cant wait to see her on the water! x

Hull Graphics

Since the weather has been so drastically rubbish this summer, one thing i have got round to doing is designing the hull graphics for the boat (as well as our harken stickers ofc) Here they are, comments much appreciated!!

You can also see now that the graphics have appeared as the banner on the blog...

Finally, the graphics are going to be made by the sign writer just up the road, same bloke who made the vinyls on my dads yacht, nice guy who will do anythin...

Harken are God

Since DaveL was workin for harken over the summer, he has 'acquired' us some little goodies to play with, more than a few - a complete harken kit out in fact, including sail and hull stickers!! and cant forget the flag!! If dave had bought this stuff in the shops we would be lookin at 900 squid here, but takin full advantage of the employee discount has proved fruitful and he got it for a meagre 300, a complete and utter bargain!! Heres some photos:

Oops

Haven't posted in a while, but nobody panic!! Dogmatic is still being worked on cept that the rain has delayed progress (as well as me workin too hard). What i have done however is designed the logo graphics for the side of the hull and now that Dave L is working at Harken we are gettin some kit from them, and potentially some nice big sail vinyl's...can't wait to see what Dave manages to wrangle!!

Today i managed to get some work done, i filled a load of the old screw holes with fiberglass filler and started sanding them, lots of rebuilding still to do though, specially on the gunnels and a little bit on the bow where someone previously rebuilt it (this rebuild was promptly chiseled off by Dave L before he left)

News just in...

Interesting news just in...we have uncovered the rest of Dogmatics History. We retrieved this info from a guy called John Murrell at the National 12 Class Association:

John Says:  Looking at the old class handbooks, she has always been called Dogmatic.
The handbooks from 1975 - 1978 list the owner as I A Rice (he was an association member) and I believe sailed at either Northampton or Middle Nene. In 1979 the boat changed to G J Oxley of Halifax. My 1980 handbook is missing but in 1981 she is listed as being owned by Cheltenham College SC and the last Handbook I have which still listed owners is the 1984 one which again shows Cheltenham as the owner.  

Glad we could uncover more of Dogmatics History. This info will be added to the History of Dogmatic post.

In an update on her progress, the sanding on the bottom of the hull is finished and now the rebuilding of bits of it in gelcoat is about to begin. Photos soon to follow when i find some batteries for the camera.

Paint, Paint, Paint

Since i didnt really do anything on Dogmatic today, i thought i would go ahead and write a quick lil entry bout which paint i plan on using to paint her hull.

The first few coats which go on the entire hull after its been prepared are the undercoat, and for the undercoat on Dogmatic we are using International Pre-Kote in white, which is pretty cheap and i have used many times in the past and it has always been relia

ble and cheerful. About 1.5l should be enough to cover the entire hull. The purpose of the undercoat is to add another layer of protection to the hull in terms of waterproofing and protecting it, as well as providing a surface for the top co

at to stick to and in some ways make the top coat even smoother.

For the inside of the hull, on the decks where we will be working and sailing, we will be painting over the undercoat in Blakes Deck Paint. This is a waterproof, grippy paint that is hardwearing and should help with grip inside the boat. We have 750ml that should cover the inside in a few coats in no time.

For the top coats on the outside of the hull i am going to use International Brightside in the colour Rescue Orange. The reason for it being painted orange is because that was the original colour of the hull before it was re-sprayed by Phil Cobby (See Dogmatic's History in an earlier post). I haven't 'acquired' any of the brightside yet so no photo is as of yet available. When it does arrive ill post it up for all to see.

The Work Begins: Washing

Today i began working on the hull, i cleaned it and moved it into the garage ready for the long arduous process of sanding and priming ready for painting. The first job i had to do this evening was to move the hull into my garage. This involved 4 people, one on each corner maneuvering the relatively heavy hull between bushes and the side of the house, back onto the previously prepared trolley, strategically placed to take the hull off our hands as our arms gave way.

Dogmatic moved into our garage:

From there it was washed, first pressure washed before being broomed and pressure washed again (it was more like a semi-pressure wash, since the washer kept braking/

cutting out/being a tad gay). Anyways heres some photos of lil Dogmatic tucked up nice and safe in my garage.

The Stern after it had been washed:

A History Lesson

Dogmatic is a 1975 National 12 built by amateur builder Tim Tomlinson to his Greyhound design. There were in total 5 Greyhound boats constructed between 1974 and 1975, of which Dogmatic is the third.

The early part of Dogmatics History was provided by John Murrell of the National 12 Class Assocition, the rest was sourced by us, mostly by asking around. John Says: Looking at the old class handbooks, she has always been called Dogmatic.

The handbooks from 1975 - 1978 list the owner as I A Rice (he was an association member) and I believe sailed at either Northampton or Middle Nene. In 1979 the boat changed to G J Oxley of Halifax. My 1980 handbook is missing but in 1981 she is listed as being owned by Cheltenham College SC and the last Handbook I have which still listed owners is the 1984 one which again shows Cheltenham as the owner.

The history of Dogmatic from where we picked up begins with St Clement Danes School in Hertfordshire, where she was purchased as a school sailing boat by the headmaster at the time Peter Conway. There it was frequently sailed by Phil Cobby who maintained her in his lunch times. Phil resprayed the original orange hull white using his dad's car automotive garage (circa '95) which is the colour it is atm.

After being owned by the school there is a slight hazy patch in the boats history, however we believe that she found her way into the hands of Nick Edwards. There she lay until 2005 when she was found abandoned in the BLYM Boat park and adopted by Paul Knight and Steve Swinchett.

Paul and Steve took the boat into their care and soon had it into a functional national 12, not going to win any races soon but definately sailable. They too soon lost interest in the boat and Dave Blakesley and Dave Langston took charge of it.

We got hold of Dogmatic after a quick phone call to paul who donated her to us. She is now located at my house in Amersham.

The Birth of a Blog

Welcome to the new blog for our recently acquired National 12, ' Dogmatic', which we are starting to restore as currently shes in a pretty sorry state. Im going to post a history of her later tonight, but first some photos are our little beast and the work done so far. Also contributing to this blog will be my partner in crime Dave 'Pixie' Langston, who is currently caring for her foils, meanwhile i tackle the hull.

 

As you can see the hull has been completely stripped, including the wooden rubbing strip around the side, and the hatch covers. She is being prepped for the few repairs needed to the hull before we apply the first few coats of Pre-Kote. The one major bit of damage is the mast step:

As visible there is a bloody great big crack through the center and the plan is to rip it out and new bit of wood in then fibre glass over the top. Should be the most complicated thing to do before finishing. Theres a few little gel boat repairs that need doing but no big deal...