The Big Push

Well it has once again been a few weeks since the last update.  Last weekend was spent in Marblehead - so no boat production, but this weekend was one of much activity.  With the holiday - three fairly full days of boat building!

First up - The hull is completely glassed, epoxied, and looking great.  It is ready to be sanded and have the furniture installed (towards the bow):

(Towards the stern)

Next on the agenda - inspection/access port on the aft bulkhead.  This plastic screw in plate allows for access to the stern flotation compartment, it will allow us to dry it out should any water get, and can also be used to store small items (like lunch and beer) in a contained dry spot.  Several interesting notes on this one.

1. We used drill - fill - drill technique, by drilling larger holes than need for the installation bolts, then filling with epoxy, and then drilling the correct size holes through the epoxy, we end up with strong, completely water impregnable holes.
2. Notice the shine?  Yup that's varnish - the first coats.  The book recommends that you not install the port until you have finished varnishing.  Down side to that is that you can't do a really neat job of bedding and bolting the port once everything is installed (you would basically have to hold the tools inside the compartment with one hand, the other outside the compartment, all with sealer that you can't visually inspect, dripping everywhere).
3. Soooo - we said why not varnish before installing the bulkhead in the boat - at least a couple of coats?  Then installed the port - then install it in the boat - so that is what we did.

And since we were varnishing anyway - let's work on the center seat that is going to be a complete pain in the ass to reach under and around once it is in the boat - here is a pic of that - shown upside down:

We are super pleased with the way the fill-its came out:

Now for the first serious modifications to the original design.  The version of the boat we are building is a take-apart.  What that means is that after all the fun of building the boat - we are going to cut it in half.  Why?  So that it can be stored in a smaller place - like the deck of sailboat.  How does it work?  Instead of just one forward bulkhead - there are two installed next to each other.  The cut occurs between the bulkheads, and the boat is later held together using four bolts.  What are we changing?  The book has a note that in 2007 they started providing reinforcing plate to the be installed on the upper ears of the bulkheads.  This (at least to me) looks like a very mickey mouse solution.  Shown here next to the bulkhead that it would be installed on (it is the light colored piece of wood - next to the dark epoxy covered bulkhead):

Instead we are installing two pieces of solid mahogany to span both bolts on each side of the bulkhead, they have been epoxied in place and are just waiting to be trimmed with a flush cut router bit:

And this is what it looks like after that operation:

Now for some more tweaks.  The forward of the two bulkheads comes designed with reinforcing blocks - only on the bottom holes - and only the forward bulkhead.  Beats me at to what the engineering is there...  anyway, since the blocks also act as vertical strengtheners, and serve to support the seat, I felt it was important to use them.  They needed to be notched out to overlap our new - much larger - reinforcing pads:

Everything assembled, glued and clamped:

After it cured - and a coat of epoxy - we have this:

We will use the same drill - fill - drill technique here - you can just make out one of the filled holes:

And for the final task of the weekend - a little rudder shaping - here are a couple of pics:

What's on tap next?  Well - although the progress looks pretty slow at the moment - we are actually getting pretty close to completion.  We will sand the entire hull - inside and out - in preparation for finish paint and varnish.  Install the bulkheads, seat, and skeg.  Glue on the rub rails - and that is pretty much it for assembly.  Early spring launch still well within sight.