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.