Greetings boat-building enthusiasts,
Yesterday, Saturday, was huge fun. You should have been here. In fact, if you had been here you could have helped me flip the boat. But no worries, I got help from my trusty pal Curt. But that was late in the day, and it cost me a grapefruit-flavored vodka drink. Actually several. Worth it though.
Since my next big task is sanding the hull exterior, and I can't flip the boat alone, I spent the day working on spars. The first task involved attaching the 'jaws' to the throat (bottom) of the yard. Wow, so many nautical terms. This boat will be a gunter-rigged sloop, meaning the leading edge of the mainsail is attached to an almost-vertical yard and a more-or-less horizontal boom. The throat of the boom needs to hug the mast, and the jaws help with the hugging, assuming I installed them correctly. And so here they are, screwed and glued. The jaws, I mean. I hope I got 'em right.
Next up, I put the boom together. It comes in three parts -- gooseneck, main boom and stiffener -- and I glued them together with lots of thickened epoxy and many clamps. It was tricky to get everything lined up and keep it lined up as I tightened the clamps.
I had some epoxy left over after all of that, so I glued the mast pieces together. It was four pieces, and now it's two -- I'll still be able to break it down for easy transport. Note: this is the aluminum mast that came with the kit -- I will be using it to begin with, but have plans to make a wooden mast over the winter. It will look better and take stresses better. But for now, using the kit mast will help me get the boat wet this season, I hope, and also let me delay the expense of the Sitka spruce needed for the wooden mast.
Below, the mast topper -- through which the main halyard will pass -- glued into place.
So with all that done, it was time to clean up and enjoy our company for dinner. Burgers on the deck overlooking the Sound, with maybe a few glasses of wine. To avoid undue risk, we flipped the boat before serving cocktails. Here its, waiting for exterior sanding. Yippee.
