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News from Cygnet Wooden Boats April 22, 2023 at 09:51AM

TE UIRA UPDATE NO 28. After the madness of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart Tasmania, life is slowly returning to some sort of normality! Now TE UIRA has been returned to the briny we have a waterline and other data to ensure that she floats as intended when she was first launched in 1896. It was the normal practice of the early boat builders to sneak a quiet launch away from the public's eye to make sure that come launch day the new boat floated perfectly on her marks. With TE UIRA'S original lead ballast being lost to WW2 and most of Charles Bailey Jun's early racing yacht plans also being lost in a catastrophic fire at the Bailey's yard, we only had an approximate weight of the keel and a description from the newspapers of the time. The newspaper description of the ballast was, " A bulb keel, almost triangular in shape". Other articles on TE UIRA mentioned a ballast weight of between 4.5 and 5 tons, although we suspected that the true weight would be kept secret by builders. It was no surprise that Jeremy's and Matts calculation for the ballast were almost perfect at 4.3 tons with only 350kg needing to be removed to allow for the mast and rig weight forward of amidships. With the knowledge learnt from floating the boat it was time to take her out of the water again, this time at Oyster Cove at Kettering and complete the fairing of the hull and the final spray painting of the hull by our team with Jonathan Minnebow Design spraying the topsides. With the topsides finish the team re-masked the topsides to add the boot top and gilded cove line. Next job was to refit the chain plates complete with their internal bronze plates to connect the deck to the hull. With UIRA'S new complex motor and drive system now running perfectly it was time to complete and fit the cockpit then add curved teak seats. While the team was busy with the topsides and deck Shipwright Pete was below decks making beautiful trim work for the skylight and hatches and the companionway. Meanwhile also below decks Shipwright Mark was busy constructing and fitting a snug chain locker up forward in a very very tight spot! With all this work now completed, over the coming winter the team and will be mast and spar building and come the spring UIRA'S rig should be ready for fitting! I'll let the pictures do the talking from here!

Fairing deckbeams & laying the deck (EP15)

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