The Tardis Project

May 11, 2016  Hours spent building to date:  2,480 Had to take a break from boatbuilding to build a boat.  We have a new design for the Connecticut River Boatbuilding Workshop this year, the Cappy 15 kayak.  Due to weather delays, scheduling delays, and very understandable work priorities of a key volunteer, I had to

May 1 2016  Hours spent building to date:  2,460 I’m afraid this week’s pictures aren’t going to look a lot different from last week’s since the big job was to put a layer of  okoume marine plywood across the bead board roof panels to add even more strength. After a lot of prep work Ray helped

April 24, 2016  Hours spent building to date:  2,439 The title does not refer to my friend Pat Harris’s usual accompaniment to burgers, sandwiches, pancakes or apple pie.  It was my order at Clinton Paint Co. for a gallon of Benjamin Moore Regal Satin “Mayonnaise” to begin painting the interior bead board roof panels. That turned out to be quite

April 16, 2016  Hours spent building to date:  2,401 The deckhouse roof has three layers — an inner layer of real wood about 1/4 inch thick next to the beams, a layer of 1/4-inch plywood, then glass.  Choosing the inner layer was a tough job, since it has to complement and set off the mahogany beams.

April 11, 2016  Hours spent building to date: 2,380 Working through the April snow and ice, I got a couple big projects out of the way, and quite a few little things. Big things: — Got all the varnish on the overhead beams in the deckhouse:  two thinned gloss base coats, three gloss finish coats, plus a final

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

April 3, 2016   Hours spent building to date: 2,338. The real Tardis Project blog will follow immediately after this post, but I know many of you who read this know me from my past life, so I thought I would reminisce a bit about the wonderful week we had in Florida at a reunion of about 60

March 17, 2016  Hours spent building to date:  2,300 (Title to this post appropriated from one of the best boat restoration sites on the Web http://www.thehulltruth.com) I think I have declared the hull finished three times before this.  But as I was milling lumber for the trim and rubrails, I kept running my hand over the

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

March 7, 2016  Hours spent building to date: 2,243 Short week due to the start of the boatbuilding season at the Connecticut River Museum and a talk for the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association to about 60 people thinking about going on the Loop. This was my first slide,  finishing the Loop with John at the Statue