Friday, October 10, 2008



Alright, so here is the cockpit sole getting ready to go back on. You can see I left spaces between some of the plywood cores. My theory being if one of them gets wet and starts to rot at least it won't be all of them.

I dropped it down and used 3M 5200 to seal it back together. Used about 125 3/16" Aluminum rivets and backing washers. Came out pretty well, not pretty to look at but solid.

And here it is looking like an actual boat again! I rigged up a mast taberknackle out of 3/4 plywood and some fiberglass, temporary until I break down and order the right parts from Dwyer Mast. That will push my costs up a good bit. I will put up a post with my cost breakdown soon, but suffice it to say I wasted some money on buying smaller quantities of things like epoxy and fiberglass resin by not breaking down and buying the right amount to begin with. Kind of a learning experience there, I was trying to save money but in the end there were some places I could have saved by spending more up front on supplies.

I did order a main sail from Bacon Sails which I haven't hoisted yet but looks pretty nice in the bag. A lot cleaner than the genoa that I have. At some point I will order a jib from them since that one is pretty rough.

If all goes well I will get it in the water this weekend for a test run. Need to finish hacking together the ruddder I am working on, hack up a boom and sheets, place cleats for said sheets, finish the transom, and get that keel bolted back in there. And don't worry, I will have an outboard for when all of that breaks and the mast falls off.

Obviously more to go before I will be content, mainly paint, rub rail, windows, a real rudder and boom. But making progress.