2-20 repeat.

We started this project a year ago today when we drew and cut the first frames out of plywood.  Today we finished work on the trailer (minus a few more details), got the boat onto the trailer, and rolled it out of the carport!  Shouldn't be too much longer now and we'll be driving to the coast for some sailing!  

Last night we hand planed the edges of the 1x6's that are the top of the bunks for the boat to rest on in the trailer, and today we screwed them down onto their 2x6's that we had cut to the curve of the bottom of the boat and I glued together yesterday.

We haven't actually attached the bunks to the trailer yet, but clamped them down temporarily, enough to securely hold the boat so we could move it and stand in it.  It's light enough for me to roll around.

We put the mast up into the boat (picked up the mast from Walt yesterday - he had pretty much finished sanding it so it's nice and round) and marked where we needed to cut off a slice from the bottom to fit into our mast step.  Once we had that done, we were able to put the mast in the mast step and see what it looks like up in the air - of course there's an oak limb up above that we kept running into.

We had to take apart the tongue of the trailer to put on the front piece with the wench and mast holder.  We moved things around and experimented with angles until we came up with something that seems to work well - basically we wanted the wench to be pulling slightly down on the boat when it is tight, so we had to move the v-piece that the bow rests in way down and hammer its aluminum bars straight, then move the wench down farther and change the angle of the whole thing.  Fortunately the trailer is really easy to manipulate and modify to our specifications.

Then we drilled a hole in the bow of the boat.  We'll put a steel pipe inside this hole and a rope will go through the pipe to attach the wench strap to.  This is instead of the more common sight of a big eye bolt attached to the outside of the bow that the strap clips into.  Started with the regular drill...

...and had to switch to the big guns.

And now there's a big gaping hole.

And, we drilled the hole in the top of the mast for the halyard.  Did some finishing chiseling and sanding on that too.

2-12.

The trailer came via UPS this past week in four big boxes.  My dad put together the frame and attached the tongue in the living room one evening, and today we took it outside to continue the assembly.  With winter finally back, we can't do any epoxy work, so it's a perfect time for the trailer.   

Just the frame, tongue, and springs.  You can see my trusty, ancient laptop in the shade at the bottom.  This computer should have died by all technological standards at least three years ago, but it stalwartly carries on and can still run a CD with a PDF of the assembly instructions, which we are following exactly.  We are using a torque wrench to tighten most of the bolts - it's fun and easy to use, I had never heard of these before.

Axel is on (although we were missing four nuts to attach two u-bolts - either never made it in the bag, or very possibly fell out during shipping since there was a hole in the bag and a box was torn and beat up).  So we have to get those before we go driving anywhere...!

We did all the wiring - hooked up the tail lights and running lights.  Trailer isn't even finished and we already have a light to fix, talk about a bad omen for a trailer.  One of the bulbs was broken during shipping.
We also attached fenders and wheels, then the shade encroached and we got cold, so we stopped for the day.  Rolled it out of the yard - it rolls great.  

3-juniper-1,2-pine-cyclooctane-MAST

I think the title of this post counts as studying for organic chemistry tonight... 

Our mast is an octagon at the moment, created by Walt Donaldson, woodworker, boatbuilder extraordinaire.  And, it is hollow - meaning lightweight for girls to lift and rig their own boats.  We spent Monday afternoon putting it together.  Walt had already cut the pieces - they are shaped so that they roll up and fit tightly together, with a hollow space in the middle (this is apparent at the end).  They are also tapered, so the mast is wider at the base and narrower at the top.  And at the base, in the photo below, you can see the juniper added to the long pine pieces that adds a core to strengthen the base.  

To start, we had to put tape under the wood at intervals and space each piece just a little bit apart (otherwise they wouldn't roll up if they were already touching).  We did a dry run test to make sure everything worked when we rolled the mast up into its octagon shape and to practice not getting the tape stuck in any cracks in the wood.

Then we started epoxying.  We just used liquid, which is way easier to deal with than glue, trying to get it in all the cracks.  I went first with a roller putting epoxy down.  Then Walt and my dad followed with squeegees and brushes to push and smooth the epoxy down onto the edges of the wood.  We went over the whole mast about three times until we were sure that all the wood had been coated and had absorbed the liquid - no dry spots, lots of epoxy everywhere, including on very slippery gloves!
Next we rolled up the mast, fastened the tape we had put down earlier to hold the wood together temporarily, and worked the pieces together so they were fitting right.

To actually hold the mast together while it dried, tape would not suffice.  So we wrapped the mast in 80 lb fishing line about 4 times - two passes up and two passes down.  Above, Walt got two strands of fishing line ready.  He went ahead to remove tape as Daddy and I took the line and started wrapping.

Each of us went up the mast, then back down, pulling the line as tight as possible without breaking it (this line was made for catching pretty good sized fish, I think it's what I needed when I caught the elusive monster pike on C-3 pool at Seney that no one but Miriam believes because it broke my line 3 separate times).  Anyway, back to the mast - once we finished wrapping the mast up, Walt tied off the line at the bottom on a few nails and then we took a little time to straighten all the wood up so the mast would dry in a straight fashion.

And at the top, you can see the hollow hole.  There will actually be a plug at the top for strength and to keep stuff out - don't want a seagull to perch and poop down the hole, or water to get in for that matter.

Now that we have a mast and a lug, we just need to make the boom.  (There's still lots of work to do on the mast, but at least the first few steps of progress have been taken).  Also we heard from the sailmaker - Mr. Stuart Hopkins at Dabbler Sails - and it sounds like we are up next.  And, Daddy, Shadowfax, and I took a trip to the beach at Panama City last week to look at boat trailers - we ordered a Trailex at Sunjammers that should be here soon - we'll be assembling it!

2-5.

Last week and this weekend we worked on the gunnels.  Daddy had already sanded and put a first coat of epoxy on the starboard side during the week, so we sanded that again and put a second coat on while we did the port side, too.  

First we drilled out the holes for oarlocks in a block of maple on each side.  Used the old fashioned drill - which I was pretty useless at because with the height of the boat I couldn't put enough downward pressure on the drill for it to bite.  We finished off the hole with the modern drill, and drilled holes for screws, too.  Later these were filled with epoxy glue, then we'll re-drill so no wood is exposed.

The most intense part of Sunday was the sanding.  I sanded the maple blocks and gunnels flush.  Then we went along and sanded every corner of each maple block so they aren't sharp edges.  This worked well using a strip of sand paper from an old belt.
Besides this, we also had to do more sanding on the inside of the boat - removing drips from past coats of epoxy that we missed when cleaning up, some uneven globs around fillets and in corners, etc.  Basically everywhere that will be visible (not covered with a seat or deck) has to be sanded perfectly smooth because any old drips show up really well under a new coat of epoxy, and apparently they'll show up under paint!

Once we were sick of sanding and decided we didn't mind having minor flaws in the finish of the boat (really who is going to notice, or mind?) we went ahead and epoxied the whole thing again - gunnels and inside panels.  I think this was the last coat for inside the seat compartments, so now we'll be working on putting the seats in, soon-ish.

Then, with warm February weather, we put the mast together - see next post!