Inching Forward

March 14, 2016 Hours spent building to date: 2,279

Sometimes the Tardis seems to leap forward to completion (galley in, deckhouse beams on), but some weeks you work just as hard and things barely inch along. Plus every picture comes out lousy.

Case in point. To begin installing hull trim, I had to cut out the forward bulwark for the anchor roller and a big skein cleat to handle mooring lines. The platform for the anchor roller required the following tools to complete:

Table saw
Band saw
Router table
Drill
Countersink
Impact driver
Putty knives
Orbital sander
Finish sander
Detail sander

Plus about 20 trips up onto the boat, out to the bow and back again.

But a few more things did get done:

Glassed in all the window seams for strength and water tightness.

Sanded and faired the forecabin sides and applied two-part primer. It looks great in person, but the picture seems to show a white whale. Trim will help.

Sanded and faired the windows from the inside. This really came out nicely, since all the poor bits of joinery are now hidden in pink goop and paint. I had been worrying about trimming out the windows with all their curves, bevels and angles. Then I looked at the primer and thought, “Done. Paint will look fine. There will be plenty of shiny stuff to catch the eye all around the forward window area.”

Trimmed out the hatch opening in cherry. This also creates a gutter so that any water that gets in around the frame runs out through weep holes instead of down onto the berth.

Well, that’s the news from The Tardis Project, where all the paint is strong, all the epoxy drips are good-looking and all the screws are above average.