Pic of the Day

[Dominic Owen]

Only 51, you say... Now that seems much more understandable and far less rediculous.

I admit I did cheat by counting 26 on one side and making the incredibly stupid assumption that there would be the same number on the other.

[Richie]

Excitement quickens at the thoughts conjured by the latest POTD.....Excitement and fear....terrible terrible fear.

[Dominic Owen]

That's fairly typical K7 really...heaven knows how many rivets hold the 'tin hat' steering blister onto the left hand cockpit wall, but it must be about a hundred!

168

[Dominic Owen]

And I'm still using the paint fume excuse, before you say anything.

[Terminator]

To some people out there today's pic of the day could possibly look boring. But to me personally it is the workmanship of pure genius and also a work of art all in one. Having only been involved briefly with the sponson work to date myself, to finally see the first one of many frames to be assembled is hard for me to put in to words. So god only knows how good it feels for the guys that have been doing the majority of the work to date on the sponson rebuild. There is light at the end of the tunnel boys and a bloody long tunnel at that I hear you say.
Novie

[Moonie]

Great news some of the original right hand sponson has been saved and will be put back where it belongs

Is this material recovered after the accident or from the lake bed during the recovery?

[Renegadenemo]

It's another peculiar effect of the boat hitting left-side first. The left-side sponson top was left either floating due to trapped air within it or what sank was soon recovered by the navy divers from the main crash site. The right-side, however, like everything else from that side, was blown out by a massive hit from the left and fluttered away pretty much as a group of parts to an area of the lake where the navy never looked.
Thirty-four years later it showed up as a massive sonar target so we gathered it up and stashed it away over a decade ago then, to Mike's absolute amazement on Thursday, when the time was right, we trotted out an entire sponson top.

[Richie]

What's the white square thing to the left Mike ?

[Richie]

Can't wait !

[Renegadenemo]

It's more the sort of metal that you tell it what to do rather than listen to it - fortunately. If you get springy stuff you have to hold it and pop it back and forth and flex it for as long as it takes to diagnose just where the stretches and awkward bits are. A strtch and a shrink can often be difficult to tell apart and we've seen parts of the boat that have been hit hard enough to shrink the metal.
But the sponson tops are made of butter, which is why you're not supposed to stand on them, so the metal can be pushed about by hand and shrinking it is a doddle. Looking forward to mending what's there.