Boat Jewelry

September 8, 2016 Hours spent building to date: 2,857

It is ironic that I first heard the term “boat jewelry” from Richard and Jane Beck (builders of the gorgeous Mark Smaalders design Beckon), since I will be seeing them Saturday at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival out in Washington state. I am heading west tonight to see my sister, friends in Sacramento and relatives in Reno, and couldn’t pass up the chance to see Beckon and the Becks at the festival.

Shiny metal next to shiny wood is an irresistible sight for a boatbuilder, especially when it’s bronze, the most ancient of all metal alloys. Beckon is suitably bejeweled: http://northseabuilder2.blogspot.com/ With installation of the opening ports, Tardis is trying hard to catch up.

Installation was a lot of work between measuring, hole drilling, sealing and dozens of trips on an off the boat. But it was made much easier by the use of butyl tape instead of gunk in a tube as the primary sealant. I had heard a lot about this miracle material from my friends on Sundowner, and it lives up to its billing: sticky but workable by hand, conforms to almost any shape, and clean — it does not adhere to clothes or hands. It probably takes longer to apply, but the time saved on cleanup makes it very appealing versus 3M 4200.

I also took an afternoon to wire the electrical panel with heavy jumpers between the two breaker banks, connections to the gauges and wiring up the backlighting system, all the while wondering why this wasn’t done at the factory to begin with.