Preping trim

This weekend I also got a lot of the trim wood stripped, finish sanded and sealed. This included the cabin trim and roughly 18' of toe rails.

Here is the cabin trim all wooded:



Then I set them out and put a coat of sealer on them. They are going to be varnished, so the finish sanding was very thorough, down to 220.


I did the same treatment to some of the tow rail sections (port and stbd bow this time), but was not so anal on the wooding and finish sanding because they are going to be painted. But for the ease of removing the paint from the wood should I, or someone else, choose to varnish them (they are varnish quality mahagony), I sealed them as well.




There was also a crack in one of the scarf fingers that I took the time to epoxy while I had them out and ready...


Now, just ~50 more feet of toe rail to go!

Fixing cutting board

Among the trillions of things I did this weekend (there will be many more updates after this one to cover the work done), I re-cut the cutting board that goes over the stove to fit better.

Here is how it wanted to fit on the sea-rails with the old kerf cuts in the bottom... it is waaay to far out for comfort, I wanted to move it back (thus the cutout I did in the back to fit it around the smoke stack).


So I setup the circular saw to cut the kerf... with the guide clamped in place as so and the blade set to the right depth:


Here it is after cleaning it all up with a chisel...


And now the new fit, such that the front of the sea rails can pass in front of the board... now I just want to make a block for the back of the rails so it doesn't slide back against the hot smoke stack.

Expariments in luting...

Last night I luted (payed , but paying is really the primer on the cotton before the stopping goes on... I donno... I'll call it luting for now) the seams on the bow. I wanted to do some more experiments with it so I can get the seams to look better when the wood shifts with the seasons...

So I practiced cove seaming. Here are the tools set up...


That ring of bronze (leftover from the bolt making extravaganza) is what I used to cove the seams... I ran it over then after stuffing in the stopping with a knife, wiping it off with solvent every few feet or so.

Here is what the end product looks like... I left the over-flow parts on there to cure for a while, then I'll go back with a scraper and sandpaper to clean it all up...




We'll see how it goes...

Minor stove work

Went to a show last night, but before I left I got a little bit of stuff done on the boat...

The cutting board that fits over the cook top extends too far into the galley... cutting off too much room. Instead of shortening it, I opted to cut a notch in it so it can go around the stovepipe, but still keep a good sized gap in the back to allow air to circulate.

Here is the marking out process with the carpenters' square:


Then the cuts. I first drilled the corners with a Forstner bit and connected the vertical parts with a back saw, then cleared out the hole with some big whacks with a 1" chisel.


Here is the fit. The cutout is only roughed out so far, I need to fair and square the faces more and put in the proper comber on the edges. Then I need to finish it with something bio-compatible...


Then I added a little flair to the boat. Cass had a Jagermeister she got for free from some bar thing... its really strange, but I got the wise idea that it would look cool on the stovepipe. Then we can use the antlers to hang towels and socks to dry! I think it looks neto, and gives the boat more character.



Hey, what do you expect from two young, punk-rock boat kids?

Stovepipe!

I also got the stovepiple installed between the stovetop and the deck fitting.

It makes the boat look so much nicer inside... it breakes up the space well and gives it a real cozy feel to have the pipe there.

I'm a big fan.

More fairing the cabin sides

So, I needed to mix up some fairing compound anyway for the hole where the chimny was, so I thought I'd use some to firther fair out the cabin sides as well...

Here is the boat, all uglied up again, trying to make it look better... This is after applying the epoxy+low density filler fairing compound and sanding it flush.


Close up of the old hole:


And fresh paint... so pretty.

Stove electrical

I got the wiring finished for the 12V fan in the stove. I'm pretty sure the stove will run fine without the fan (or so I hear), but its supposed to be much better with the extra air flow.

There isn't much to show for this part of the project, but there is a mess of wires...

Work party!

On Sunday we had some friends over to the boat, Obie and Aurelia. They didn't mind putting in some work, so we all went to town on the bane of all boat varnishing projects, the handrails. But, many hands make quick work, and we got the st'bd side rails done (stripped to bare wood and applied one coat of sealer) in one afternoon.

Here are some shots of the work:




And the results (before sealer, though):



Here is what it looked like initially, this is the port side rail that is yet to be done, big improvement!


Thanks again to Obie and Aurelia for helping out on such a tedious task!

The bow

This weekend I finally hitched up my panties and got to work on the bow refastening job again (the most major thing keeping me at the dock at the moment). I really need to work on the projects that matter and not so much the ones that are really satisfying to do (like varnishing and painting). Before I started the caulking, I tightened the new fasteners on the planks, making sure they are still sufficiently tight. Then I gathered my caulking materials and went outside...

Here is what the bow has looked like for a while now, with the tarp covering the open seams. This arrangement worked very well for keeping water off the hull there... so well that there was little incentive to button it up better with the 'real fix' (recaulking).


Here's what it looks like under the skirt...


So, I went to town recaulking the seams... here is the cotton all looped into the seams, ready to be 'made in'. You can see here that I also have some fastener holes to re-bung as well...


Here is a close-up of some nice, even loops (at least for my current skill level):


Then I set all the cotton tight and payed the seams over with homemade redlead primer. That was all for the day. Next I need to lute the seams, bung the holes, fair the luting compound and paint!

Just to keep track of things,,,

Yours truly, making a maintenance list with Cass:

Views from around the boat

I got to taking pictures of the random decorations we have around the boat, especially around the sides of the trunk cabin.

Most is just post cards and things from friends.

Smokestack install!

So, yesterday I got the leveling block, deck ring, and the 'Charley Noble' in for the stove. Not too much to show, but I'll show what I've got.

Setting the ring on was a two person job, one topsides positioning and holding it while I drilled from below. After that, liberal application of roof patch was called for, then fastening down. I chose roof patch because 1. its cheap and 2. its connecting a sealed piece of wood to a glassed-over deck, so I see little linseed oil/wood preservative benefit to using Dolfinite.

Here it is all fastened down... black goop abound. I figure its easier to clean off excess than deal with a leak down the road and do it all over again.

And from above...


Then I installed the deck ring, sealed with roof patch as well (again, good for metal to sealed wood seam). I did a mild cleanup of the excess squeezed out, but I'm going to let it set up for a day of so before I rag it up with solvent (and harden up on the fasteners).

Varnish!

On Sunday, I planned on getting the final touches done on the chimney project...

But I thought it would be nice to start the day sanding and touching up some varnish. Well, I never stopped and Cass and I ended up giving every piece of bright wood a through sanding and coat of varnish (except for the forward hatch, but that sees very little exterior use and thus no scratches).

So, everything is looking good! I was awesome to this started early in the season. I didn't get any shots of the preped wood (I was in the zone), but I got a lot of finished shots.

Enjoy.