Stringing Along

Now that the stringers are in, they have to be faired to meet the planking.  That led to one of those situations that if I was doing this professionally would lead straight to bankruptcy.

As you can see, the under berth stringers basically stop right in the air — they are hooked to nothing at this point.  So there was no way that I could think of to “scientifically” determine their shape or the bevels that would get them to lie against the planking.  I eyeballed it with a jigsaw and power plane, and I could get the practice plank to go on, but it didn’t seem right — I had to really shove the plank in, which meant there was pressure in there somewhere trying to bend it back out.

So I had to rely on the amateur-retired-guy method: plane, sand, fit; plane, sand, fit;  plane sand fit.  About four hours worth.

When I was a 22 year-old newspaper reporter, I could crack out 1,000 words about a drug murder in 15 minutes before deadline with no problem.  When I was a 45-year-old investment banking guy, I could crack out a 100-page offering statement to sell a company in about three days with almost no sleep.  When I was a 60-year-old marketing guy,  I could still do a PowerPoint to sell Mars Chocolate a boatload of advertising in under an hour.

Now four hours is a little pile of sawdust.  But I love it.

To reward myself I laminated in a forward small stinger to make the boat grow.

Final shape of the %^*(*$ under berth stringer

Forward stringer lamination