Sunday, August 31, 2014

Framing the hatches

Every time something new is added to the boat, someone says, "Wow! Now it really looks like a boat!"

I will spare you. I do have a particular fondness for the frames around the hatches, though. It makes it look... well, you know.



Here are the pieces laid out, ready for gluing.

And here's a closeup of the way the joins work.

At first all the epoxy we purchased seemed excessive. 

Where there's glue, there's cleanup.



Hard as it is to believe that it's going to be September tomorrow, early fall has its compensations.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

What's a boat without a rudder?


For the moment, at least, there's no need to answer that question. Here's the rudder temporarily installed. Yes, it will need another coat of paint, won't it.

Top this!

Once a cabin top has its sides, and its holes cut for windows, and the frames glued in, there's nowhere to go but up. And up the top went, earlier this week.



The cabin top is assembled from two pieces. Here they are, reclining on the deck awaiting installation.


Gluing in process. It's possible that the glue crew noticed the camera.


Here it is, glued in, and with lots of squeeze-out scraped off. Squeeze-out: it's a good thing. Just a huge amount of sanding and six quick coats of paint on that and you won't notice it at all.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Window frames, deadlight frames, whatever you call them


... suddenly, in a veritable bristle of clamps, they are underway.

The cabin sides have the holes cut in them. The frames are glued on inside, so the glass sits flush with the cabin sides on the exterior.


Shaped frames, ready to install inside.

And here's some of them, glued and clamped. To be continued!


Saturday, August 9, 2014

Cabin top

The cabin top mockup, complete with Santa's chimney and hatch cover, looked great, at least if one squinted a bit ...






However, while the replacement isn't quite as complete, it will ultimately be a good bit more useful. And lasting! 

It's well underway now. No top yet, but it's definitely starting to look like a boat.


The plywood makes the shape, but there are lots of little framing pieces supporting it inside.










Every stick takes time and care to install. 

The end result will be beautiful.

In other less photogenic news, Robbie has been experimenting with a low-volume, low pressure paint sprayer, so far just in the aft hold. There is A Lot of painting on this boat -- two coats of primer and two coats of top coat for the interiors, and three of each on the exterior. That's a lot of brush and roller time, and we'd be delighted to speed things up a bit.

So far the sprayer seems quite useful. Even if we end up using it mostly for primer, or primer plus first top coat, it should save some time. I haven't included a picture of the mostly-white aft compartment -- we'll save that excitement for next time.

Monday, August 4, 2014

"It's like déjà vu all over again." Yogi Berra

As baseball's master of the appropriate comment said, "It's like déjà vu all over again." Once again, decks cover the formerly-open hull. Light in the berths is reduced, but the potential for water-tightness considerably improved. 

Much sanding is happening today, and the cabin top is underway -- pictures of those parts will follow.

Here are Robbie and Trevor working on the side decks. Fore and aft areas are glassed.
All but side decks glassed in this one. Featured on the left is the vacuum that starred in the last post!
 At this point, things seem to be going really quickly. I think this is partly because everything that is being done is being done for the final time. We don't have more decks to add after this. Today Robbie and Trevor are working on the final cabin top. We need to get glass cut for it -- but only once.  This is too wonderful a project to use phrases like "light at the end of the tunnel" for -- it's a happy build for us, and it's all light. (In fact, as you can see in the bottom picture, it's actually happening in a nice, light tunnel!) But we are getting a sense of the arc of the project aiming towards completion now.

Of course it's easy to ruminate philosophically at this point and ignore the reality of ten coats of paint (four inside, six out) to go! 

Déjà vu all over again indeed.


Three cheers for our vacuum!

The Festool sander we have connects to the Festool vacuum. So we've almost forgotten how dusty sanding is when one doesn't have an integrated system.

The other day Robbie was sanding outside, while Trevor was sanding in a compartment. Seemed only fair for Trevor to use the vacuum,  the better to enjoy the pleasure of overhead sanding on a hot day with. 

Here's Robbie after some sanding on deck. Good reason to use the vacuum! And the mask, of course, the outline of which you can see on his head.

And are these not the most styling glasses ever?


Swatch. From Geneva. Perfect for every occasion.