Strapped down and ready to ride

Alright.  A few measly hours behind schedule, we are headed out onto the freeway.

Oil change.  New ratchet straps.  Lots of snacks, courtesy Summer and Susan.

The boat looks and feels sturdy.  We have the stock for oars, the gunwales, plus lots of fir plywood and odds and ends.  This is going to be fantastic.  We are both looking forward to a lot of thumbs up while rolling down the highway.

First stop is Eugene, OR. We planning to stay at the lovely abode of Gen and Germ.  Apparently they have two boats in their front yard, so we'll be right at home.

Time just keeps on ticking...

So here we are. Its May of 2011 and the boat still has a ways to go. We've had some obstacles to progress over the last year or so. Drew moved down to Cali, JD has been in Olympia, but he's been leaving for far away boat jobs each summer. Its meant that boat work has been relegated to the winter, which just isn't that functional or appealing in our plastic hut of a boathouse.

The latest movement on the boat front is a plan to drive it down to California.  There are a variety of reasons this might be a good idea.  To wit,

• Drew has time on his hands, supposedly.
• Drew has access to a shop that actually has walls. 
• No rent is charged at said shop. 
• JD is leaving again for the remainder of the summer. 
• It will be fun and hilarious to drive the boat down.

As far as reasons it might be a bad idea?  There is pretty much just that one pesky one....DANGER DANGER DANGER! Okay, not really, but we will be strapping a 18 ft boat on top of JD's 14 ft pickup.  Hey, its gone 258,000 miles already, whats another 800 with a boat on top???

So, as long as we don't have any mechanical problems, encounter any massive windstorms, or blow out all our tires (knock on wood), the boat will be in CA by Wednesday of next week!

For reference, I've attached a picture of us trying on the boat for size.  Note, this is not the final loading position...

Gluing in the centerboard case

We decided to spring for a belt sander

Recently, some coats of epoxy failed to cure smoothly. The outside of the boat is now covered in ridged epoxy, leading us to discover how annoying it is to try to scrape basically the entire hull of the boat with loud, repeatedly dulling sharpeners. Faced with another couple of hours of scraping, we decided to purchase a belt sander. Probably it'll be even louder, and take just as long, but, whatever. Maybe it will be less annoying.

We went to the box stores. Shhh. We thought that if worse came to worse, we could take the thing back. Here are a couple of videos of our visit. The first one is Lowe's, the second Home Despot. Enjoy:





In which we review the Porter-Cable Compact belt sander, the Black and Decker Dragster, the Skil belt sander, Dewalt belt power sander, and more?!

New Shop

I've mostly completed setting up the new boat shop on the west side. We're now in a pole shed with quite a bit less space than before, but a lot more light and air.

In preparation for continued work on the boat I've built a new work bench, and just today finished a big cabinet that will store our tools securely and accessibly. I'm very excited.

Tomorrow I'll be able to work on the boat straight away.

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Edit:  Many moons later, we added plastic walls so that we could heat up the boatshop for the purpose of getting some of our epoxy to cure....check out a graphic illustration below. 

More Landing Gear

I've been working on all the pieces that will attach to the bottom of the boat to protect it. I've pretty much finished the skeg, and the rubbing strips I think I'll finish up today. Once those pieces are installed, the outside of the hull will be ready for paint.


This picture (above) shows the two pieces that make up the skeg being glued together, the bow-block coated with epoxy and down in the distance to the left are the two rubbing strips with their scarphs.




Here you can see the finished skeg sitting approximately where it will eventually be glued down. I made it substantially heavier that the designs called for, and tapered it down to 3/8". Looks pretty handsome, no?

Bow Block

I carved a nice oak bow block to protect the bottom where it'll hit the beach a lot. It needs a little more shaping and sanding, but I think it looks nice. I also cut strips of oak for the rubbing strips that will go on either side of the bottom. Sorry, no pictures of the strips. Maybe later when I'm putting them on.