Thursday, July 16, 2009

Only 88 pages to go...

Officially 430 hours of labour on my Pocketship and "only" 88 pages of the 285 page manual to finish. However, those pages cover a lot of sanding, fiberglassing, painting , varnishing, and all the hardware and rigging installation. Actual construction remaining includes the cabin decking, companionway, and rubrails. Just as I am getting better at fillet work I have only the fillet on the keel left to do once the hull is turned over. It appears the 10 pounds (a 5 gallon pail) of wood flour called for in the plans is going to be just enough for all the fillet work on Pocketship. A 5 gallon pail ( 5 pounds) of cabosil for gluing is going to more than enough although the plans call for using 25 pounds of cell-o-fill. The photos below update my recent progress.

Flotation foam roughly cut to fit seatback compartment. As in the bow compartment I didn't worry about a careful fit but filled the voids with a can of expanding foam insulation once the seatbacks were installed.

Seatbacks glued in but not trimmed flush yet. If you look forward into the cabin you can spot the dorade box inspection plate in place.

Cabin carlins, cleats, dorade box cleats, and sheer clamps finally all planed with matching bevels. Took a few hours until I was satisfied with all the angles and was not exactly the quick work with a block plane as described in the manual. But I enjoy getting the curves just right and being able to caress the fine lines of Pocketship; must be a novice boatbuilder thing. The unseasonable cold weather of late has had only one positive; I didn't get all sweaty (not with the caressing, the hand planing!).

Seatback decking glued in place but not yet trimmed. Trimming will be done once the cabin decking is installed next week. Pocketship construction is generally Monday to Friday since the weekend is cottage time at the lake.

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