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Plywood to boat!

I am done. Today I mounted the last pieces of hardware, tied the sail to the spars (in the dark in the rain on the front lawn with lightning flashing), figured out how to rig the halyard, put on a final coat of varnish (for this year) and put the licence plate on the trailer.

The ghastly crew….

The last two days have been pretty good but also frustrating. I got the hatches hinged and latched and supported. It was trickier than I thought and I screwed up the first hatch and had to fill one set of holes I drilled in the top deck. But, they are hinged and have latches to lock them shut and spring supports from Duckworks that work so slick it’s not even funny. You lift the hatch until the spring straightens and then “bing” it straightens out and the hatch is supported. To close you just poke a finger into the middle of the spring and lower the hatch. Really simple and effective.

I repainted the leeboard guard, leeboard, rudder, cheek, seats and seat supports to the same colour as the interior. Possibly more boring but the red just wasn’t working with the mahogany.

I also spent time Friday and Saturday trying to find bolts for the various fittings I need to attach to complete the boat. Some have been impossible to find so I will have to keep looking or use inferior methods of mounting them which I don’t want to do.

Here are some photos…

Gorgeous fall day and I spent a few more hours sanding and painting/varnishing. I finished painting the decking and anchor well and the leeboard. Everything dried very quickly as it as 27C or 80F to day…calm, just an unbelievably gorgeous day.

I was able to quickly start sanding the gunwales to get them ready for their first coat of varnish. The boat looked fabulous with the first coat of varnish on the gunwales. My neighbour, Al, who owns an autobody shop came down to take a look and really liked it…except for the choice of colour for the seats and other bits. He thinks it looks like primer and has promised to mercilessly bug me until I change it. I have to agree with him. I’m just so tired of painting and want to leave it until next spring. Al promises me he won’t let me do that. I’ll see…maybe I can get the bits repainted in time for a launch day next Tuesday or Wednesday.

The mast looks fabulous. The last coat of Epifanes varnish was the first coat that went on unthinned and I was blown away by how great it looked and how quickly it had dried. The Varathane stuff I have been using on the tiller stays sticky for 2 days per coat. I put another coat on tonight and am thinking that will likely be it for this year. I can’t wait for morning to see how it looks.

Today was another warm beautiful day. I came home early hoping to finish off nearly everything.

But, I had a couple of problems…the anchor well and the front decking weren’t finished drying in some spots. I was thinking that maybe I had painted them before the epoxy primer had fully cured and that maybe I had just created myself a messy problem.

Couldn’t think of much to do except open the garage door to let the front decking get some heat. I later put a light in the anchor well and covered the top of the well in order to heat things up in there. By bedtime it seems to have worked. I’ll see how these spots are tomorrow after work. If they are good I’ll be able to finish off everything except the gunwales and leeboard guide.

Hunter came out tonight and did a little painting. Rather than look for some paintin’ clothes he just stripped down to his skivvies! What a kid!

Here’s a couple of shots of the boat as it is right now and of the various bits drying in the rest of the garage.

I decided to go with all “Thousand Islands” inside the boat and on the decks. I didn’t like the way the varnished hatch covers looked against the red and this is way easier with no lines to mask off and/or cut in…just slap on the paint. I think it’s going to look pretty good with the red seats and the varnished gunwales, mast and spars. Can’t wait!

Today I painted nearly everything at least once. I decided to go with all Thousand Islands in the cockpit, decks and wells so I put the first coat on the decks and wells and the second coat in the cockpit. Varnished the mast and tiller, painted the rudder, seats, rudder cheek and one side of the leeboard.

Tomorrow I should get the hull finished and be able to take off the masking tape and get started varnishing the gunwales.

Today I got Everything covered with at least two coats of primer….well, except for the top of the leeboard that I noticed 30 seconds after having dumped the last little bit of primer Now I’ll have to mix up a small batch just for that spot. Dang!

Put a second coat of varnish on the mast, second coats of paint on the bottom and part of the cockpit, second coats of paint on the seats. Tomorrow evening I should be able to sand everything that I primed today and start painting. Shouldn’t take too long. Varnishing the gunwales will be the last job…and that will take a while to finish as I have to get the rest painted before I lift off the masking tape and sand the gunwales to prep them for the varnish.

The last two days have been busy and productive. The biggest milestone has been epoxying the front decking to the hull. This was a big job requiring lots of clamps and a little resourcefulness. I tried clamping it in place withthe clamps on hand and figured I needed about 4 more of the bar clamps that I like so I went to Canadian Tire and picked 4 up. When clamping the sides at the front the very front part above the anchor well bowed up and away from the first bulkhead. It took a lot of weight applied to it and I didn’t have enough toolboxes, etc to do the job.

So, I looked at how I could pull it down and came up with the idea of using rope to apply pressure to it. I was a bit nervous about the knot slipping or the rope stretching and I checked it a few times to make sure it was holding properly.

After that was done, I primed and painted and sanded. At the end of Sunday night I have one coat of paint in the cockpit, a coat of primer on everything except the front decking and anchor well, a coat of paint on the seats and one seat support and a coat of varnish on the mast.

With any luck I should have it all painted and varnished for next weekend. In the last photo you can see the colour for the seats…and maybe the decking as well. It’s a red called “Maple Leaf Red”. I think it goes very nicely with the “Thousand Islands” beige but am not so sure it will look good next to the varnished hatch covers. Well, if it doesn’t it’s only paint and nothing that hours of sanding and painting can’t fix

Today I went straight to Benjamin Moore after work to pick up some paint as I had run out of the white paint I used for the hull and inside the bulkheads. They didn’t have any more white of the type I had used so I picked some paint of the same type to be coloured for inside the cockpit and the decks. I figured it would be light so it will be fine inside the rear bulkhead as well.

I looked at the bazilion paint chips and noted that they have a lot of colours named after places in Canada. The one that caught my eye was “Thousand Islands”, a creamy tan that I liked and seeing as how I’ve made about half of my 2200+ skydives at Gananoque, ON with the Thousand Islands as a backdrop I figured it was appropriate.

Came home and started painting. Finished painting the rear bulkhead compartment with the new paint and I really like it. Here’s what it looks like:

Next, I spent a bit of time sanding down the thickened epoxy I put over the lead in the rudder, just fairing that out a bit.

Then I turned my attention to where the gunwales meet the stem. The stem was a bit proud and messy with epoxy. I worked at it with the Sand Shark and sanding block until it looked pretty good.

After supper I went out, mixed up 20 oz of System Three Yacht Primer (16 oz of hardener and 4 oz of resin in a 4:1 ratio) and started painting it into the cockpit area. This stuff is an epoxy primer that is water based. It went on very nicely. Very easy to keep a wet edge, flowed out nicely, covered well…completely unlike that Ameron stuff I used on the outside of the hull…the remainder of which I will only use if I run out of this System Three Yacht Primer.

Here is a shot of the boat showing the three areas in different colours:

It’s almost like a calico cat….tan white and black

The 20 oz was just enough to finish inside the cockpit and paint a bit on the mast partner and one side of the 2×4’s that support the seats. Was it EVER nice to clean up using a bucket of water! The brushes cleaned up very easily. What a treat!!!! That stuff cost $130 for a gallon (with the shipping costs) but it was worth every penny is how I feel right now.

Today I used up the rest of the Benjamin Moore white paint putting a second coat on the front compartment.

Next, I mixed up some epoxy and used it to seal the the lead into the rudder. Then I thickened the remainder and used it to fair the top of the sink weight.

Lastly, I epoxied the mast step into place.

Next is more painting inside the bulkheads, sanding of the gunwales, anchor wells and engine well followed by painting.