Back at Work

June 19, 2017  Hours spent building to date:  3,790

There’s the old saying that a boat is never really finished, so after the excitement of the launch it was back to the shop to keep working away on all the details necessary before the WoodenBoat Show in two weeks;

— Glued down the teak and holly 1/4-inch plywood to the 1/2-inch subfloors for a total of 3/4 inch of very solid-feeling flooring.  The actual floors are a bit chopped up to allow for access to the spaces beneath, but when finished should look nice.

—  Installed the fuel gauges, one of those “small” jobs that took most of a day.  Each gauge has four wires — sender positive, sender negative, gauge positive, gauge negative  — and they had to be run to the switch panel through holes that are getting smaller and smaller as more wires go in.

— Glued up the mast and boom.  This is not really necessary since I don’t have a dinghy to lift up with them yet.  But it should be one of those touches like the ports that make the boat very “shippy.”

— Started figuring out the helm seat placement.  Tricky, since it seems to want to fall right between the dinette platform and cabin sole in front of the wheel.

We’ve been having some torrential rains recently, and the aft deck is letting more water in than I’d like.  Nothing that the bilge pumps won’t handle in a few seconds, but I really need to finalize the fit and add more hatch sealant to that area as soon as I can work it in.  No leaks at all inside the boat that I can see.

There is another old saying that the best way to go sailing is on someone else’s boat, and after 20 years of caring for two acres, I feel the same way about gardens.  So over the weekend we went up to Litchfield County to visit other people’s spectacular gardens as part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program.

Floor glue-up with clamps and other Heavy Items

Forward floors

Aft floors

Mast and boom glue-up

Fuel gauges

Helm seat placement test