Workspace is at a premium again. Just enough room to lay out the topsides for gluing the scarf joint and then for fiberglassing once they are cut out. The pattern is partly rolled out for the tedious process of poking pinholes through the pattern on to the plywood. Then the pattern is removed and pins are pushed into the holes so that a batten (in my case a flexible metal meter stick) can be used to draw the long curves of the topsides. The entire transferring process took at least an hour.
The forward decking is now glued in place. I didn't realize until after it was glued in place that it was oversized and was flush with the hull sides. It needs to be a 1/4 inch smaller on each edge to allow for the thickness of the topsides. An hour of router trimming and chisel work and it is now okay.
I was stitching the seatback frames in place and couldn't resist putting the seatback and cabin rear wall in place. I think the photo gives you some idea of how spacious the cockpit is on this "big" little 15 foot mini-cruiser.
Our fifth and final sailing lesson is tomorrow and I am crossing my fingers that we do not have the 21 knots gusting to 35 knot winds we have today. In those conditions I am fairly certain they wouldn't send us out in the little 2 man 420's that we have been learning on. Two capsizes and my first mate being knocked out of the boat by the boom is plenty enough for these two landlubbers.
2 comments:
Hi Dave,
I was re-reading some of you blog posts that deal with some of the tasks I'm about to undertake on my Pocketship. In this post, you mention your final sailing lesson in the "little" 420s. I think it is amazing that as "big" as Pocketship is, she's only about a foot longer than a 420! Of course PocketShip has tons more beam, freeboard, and displacement, but still, it is amazing how much is packed into her diminutive length.
I may have posted this previously somewhere on the blog but our real life sailing experience on our Pocketship has confirmed what a big little boat she is. At the dock when you step into a "420" it feels like you could capsize right there. On Pocketship you can jump into the cockpit off the dock and she barely budges. Once when docking another boat was using the boat launch and I had to help them guide their boat around mine. I grabbed a rope attached to their bow , jumped on my Pocketship and calmly walked from the stern, through the cockpit , up on the cabin roof and into the anchor well foredeck. Good old Pocketship probably didn't roll more than 3 or 4 inches. It was as stable as walking on the dock!
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