April 3, 2016 Hours spent building to date: 2,338
Back at work after our trip to Florida. Most of this isn’t very visual, but things are moving along:
— Ray helped me start varnishing the deck beams, since taping them off would be a huge amount of work after the roof goes on. That’s the next big project.
— Scarphed, glued and installed the rubrail base. This was a challenge because I couldn’t use the Lackey Method and manufacture and install it in one sweeping curve. There was just too much bend in the bow, so I had to screw laminations to the sheer strake one at a time over three days. That led to the always-awkward joining of a laminated section to a solid section. The laminations tend to make an uneven scarph, since the radius of each piece around the bow is just a little bit bigger as each layer goes on, and the scarph gets too long. But epoxy cures all and the final result is okay — and will be really okay when covered with the mahogany caprail.
— Finished up all the interior priming, and started work on the plumbing. This caused hours of head-scratching since the various filters, faucets and tanks have at least five different-sized fittings, all of which will require adapters.
Beams are getting some shine. The ribbon striping in the sapele is awesome.
Scarfing jig. So much better than cutting them by hand.
Laminations going on.
Rubrail clamped and tied to the boat.
Final product.
Shot from the bow. You can’t tell from the picture, but this really elongates the lines of the boat. She will never be svelt, but is no longer fat.
The Tardis Project 
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