Week 9: We pass the two month mark!!

It has been a five day weekend at the boat shop. We made progress on several fronts. The propane locker got its holes and top joint glassed again and is now done. The engine beds logs are prepped for glassing and the mounting holes for the deck hardware on the fore deck and cabin top have been cast and drilled out. Marsden made a new floor for the anchor locker. The new engine panel mount has been made. Now it needs to get installed in the cockpit.Nina has spent the last two days crawling in and out of the cockpit lockers with cardboard and tape and she now has a template for the cockpit support bulkhead. This will stiffen up the cockpit and prevent problems in the future. It also gives us something to mount the under deck auto pilot to.

The plywood bulkhead will need to be split down the center to fit into the boat. It will of course need to be glassed into place.

While we have been working Tom and Chris have been finishing the cockpit combings. We will be able to comfortably sit on them as well as have real estate for winches and cleats.The dodger has been moving along. We epoxied PVC pipe to the curved parts. This took a bit more clamping.

You can see the saw kerfs that let the pipe bend.

The epoxy makes everything slippery so lots of clamps are needed.

After sanding a fillet was applied so when we fiberglass the glass will lay down nicely. More frosting bags of epoxy.

The toe rail has been fit all around the deck. It is beautiful. Nina would like to add that it’s really gorgeous, even after it’s been put on twice now to fit the aft end of it, to locate the stanchion braces and get ready to drill the big holes.

We now need to drill out he bolt holes to 1/4". Then they will be over drilled to 1/2" and filled with epoxy. Then we get to refit the toe rail and re-drill the holes. — The screw holes being drilled to fit to 1/4″ bolts. They will be over drilled to 1/2″ and filled with epoxy. Third time’s a charm for putting the toe rail back on to redrill the proper sized holes for the final fit.

Bill is counting the toe rail holes there are 82 per side. — Bill is counting the toe rail holes – only 82 per side. No wonder it took awhile to drill all of them.

We have also been working on the holes in the cabin sides that the ports mount into. Gypsy had had a couple of different styles of ports prior to the opening ports we installed. The cabin sides had holes that were sort of butchered and rescued. Bill made molds to fit into the port opening so epoxy putty can be formed around them.

The mold is covered in metal tape, waxed and mounted in the opening. Then the gap is filled with epoxy putty. A pastry bag works great. Even with the wax and a tapered shape to the mold it takes several good blows with a mallet to get the mold loose. Epoxy is great glue.

Finished port opening. The excessive gaps are now filled. — Finished port opening. The excessive gaps are now filled and the opening is now much easier to fill with caulk. No more butyl rubber!

Boat work is fun, but our poor yard is begging for attention. We will have to see if the fruit trees get pruned this year.

2 thoughts on “Week 9: We pass the two month mark!!”

Sharon Hinckley says:

March 25, 2015 at 10:52 am

As I forward these on, everyone is totally amazed and cheering! Love the reports. You’re all working wonders!

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Kate Swabey says:

March 25, 2015 at 2:21 pm

you continue to amaze me ! the garden can be paid attention in the autumn.

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