San Francisco to Olympia is a Long Commute

This is a picture of a tree in the eveing light.  It is a couple blocks from the boat shop, and I walk by it every day that I go there.  For most of the year it's a fairly non-descript young maple tree, but for a couple weeks it really put on a show.

JD was here and now he has gone and I'm alone in the boat shop again.  Three days is not long enough.  However, we made a great leap in our progression toward actual boatiness.  Two garboards are glued in place, and they'll soon be ready for the next planks to be attached.  

[Warning! The next passage may contain indeciferable technical jargon.  Read at your own risk.]

I still have to cut the overhang off of the port garboard in the stern, and then check the curve of the sheer side (top) of both garboards.  Then I'll bevel the sheer edge of the garboards where the next planks will lie and we'll be ready to rock again.  I anticipate the beveling taking some time, and I need to sharpen up the planes again, but all in all things are moving along.

I won't be in the shop for a few more days as I'm working up at my mom's house, putting in some new windows, but maybe I'll get in there this weekend if Abel doesn't have any work for me.  

Excellent Work

Today we installed the port side garboard strake.  When I say we, I mean JD and Drew were both in attendence.  No video conferencing, no Skype chat, but real, honest to goodness person to person collaboration.  It was excellent. 

Yesterday we glued on the starboard strake.  The aft end had a moderate gap around the transom and we just filled that full of epoxy.  I think it will be great. 

The port side was a little more problematic since we broke off both of our little drill bits while drilling pilot holes.  Without a car we started to get nervous since we had already spread epoxy basically everywhere.. but we called Steph who saved our freaking asses and went to the hardware store and picked up bits.  See figure 2.1

Thinking About Oars

JD will be here soon to help with installing the garboards.  I haven't been in the boat shop much since they've been finished, but I've been doing some research into oars.  

I've found a few recomendations for the leverage ratio an oar should have, but the concensus seems to be that you should find an oar that is comfortable and moves your boat along well.  So much for formulas.

Maybe instead of jumping into building three sets, I'll build one set at a time so we can test them.