Exactly One Year Over Schedule!

I promised I would have the boat in the water last 4th of July. Then I promised this 4th of July.  Oy.  Lately I’ve been hoping for early September so I could boat to the Wooden Boat Festival in Port Townsend, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. Maybe I can be a Christmas Ship instead

On the plus side, I’m pretty much done with construction except for the sliding doors. Now it’s a lot more sanding, priming and painting.

Galley is coming together:

I cut up my last sheet of 3/4 ply today – pilothouse sole, galley counter, and helm seat supports. Having full-size patterns let me lay out the pieces to minimize waste.

Work Bench in the Boat

I added this work table last week. It’s just sitting on top of the aft cabin.It’s a good work height, and holds all the stuff I need again and again. Now I don’t have to climb out of the boat so often. I wish I’d done it a long time ago – my knees are feeling the strain of this work. I’ve been building this thing for 2 1/2 years now, almost every weekend, and a couple of nights a week.  The end is in sight though, I just got my last 2 sheets of plywood delivered today, and the interior construction is approaching completion. Now more finish work, priming and painting, electrical, and plumbing.

Seat box – the driver and passenger seats go on top of this. The cutout on this side is for binocular storage. The larger one on the far side is to the storage under the stove and sink – for dishes and food. Fresh and grey water tanks, water pump and bilge pump below that.  Batteries and charger go below the sole at the bottom of the picture. I added 3 floors there today to support the weight of the batteries.

Primer on the Bow and Other Progress

I primed the bow and the stem post. It still needs some sanding, but the primer makes it look a lot more finished. I’m about ready to prime the whole inside of the hull and the gunwales. This is a lot of area because of the high bulwarks all around the boat.  I’m also finishing the space under the pilothouse sole. The forward area will hold the batteries, and the rear area will have the fresh and grey water tanks, with the galley above.

Here’s the view from inside the pilothouse, with the mooring bitt set in place. I’m going to paint the inside of the chain locker with gray Bilgekote paint:

I like how the stem post is coming out:
 

Inside the pilothouse, just forward of the steering station. This is a removable board sized to hold a standard large chart book. It will lift out for access forward to the head. The part on the right is fixed and will be used to mount electronics.
 

Here’ a shot of the galley roughed in. The butane stove is dropped into the cutout  on the right. The cutting board covers the stove. The sink will go on the left, where the drill is now. The photo is from the aft cabin facing forward. The vertical board is the underside of the pilothouse seat mount. The seats tilt forward to give access to the galley.

Forepeak Primer

 

I finished glassing and sanding up front, and applied primer this weekend.  Priming the underside if the deck with just 2 feet of clearance was really hard and really messy. I wore my full coveralls with hood, and a full-face respirator. When I finally came out the respirator window was splattered with paint. I had to clean it with solvent.  The drop-in panels will be varnished and hinged. The two holes in front will have clear screw-in covers. I’d like to get some finish paint applied next weekend. 

Windows!

The windows were delivered this afternoon so I installed them temporarily. They all fit perfectly. I really like the way they look, especially the center opening one. They’re very heavily built, with welded corners and heavy glass.  I’ll need to pull them off to paint, and can then install them permanently.

Forepeak Work

I’m working on the interior, starting with the forepeak. The forepeak will have a small berth, some storage lockers, and the head. This is also where the shore power comes into the boat.  The space is pretty small because of the walk-around deck ahead of the cabin. I wish I had moved the forward bulkhead forward a few inches. In fact, the space is so small that I inset the toilet paper holder and the 110-volt shore power panel into the locker just forward of the cabin. Mounting the toilet paper holder on the surface stuck out too far. I’ll take some pictures when that is more finished.

Head mockup – there will be a single step down to the head level from the pilothouse sole.
 

Forepeak construction – since this space is so hard to get to anyway, I’m making it into a waterproof compartment with 2 inspection ports. The berth flats are glassed in solidly, adding strength along the whole bow area right at the waterline.
  

Here the forward flats have been glassed in place and the lockers are being fabricated. The round holes are for ventilation. The visible holes will have stainless vent covers to make them pretty.  Again, the supports and flats were filleted and heavily glassed, adding a lot of strength in this area.

     

New tool – I replaced my old router with this laminate trimmer. It’s so much nicer. It’s easier to work with and fits into small spaces. I haven’t pulled out the router once since I bought this.

Original Godzilla – Now $62,600 Off

In early December I posted that the original Godzilla was for sale for $137,500. I just found a new listing, asking $74,900. They’ve dropped the asking price by nearly a third in four months, and it still hasn’t sold. Scary times. The new listing has some nice pictures, with details I haven’t seen before.  That Kirby green hull (Hull color-Kirby-1 part bronze green, 3 parts bottle green (satin)) still looks pretty good, after five years.

 

              

Paint!

Ordered through Jamestown Distributors.  I’ve spent the last couple of weeks sanding and filling the bulwarks, chain lockers, and stern lockers to get ready for primer and paint.  I also made the Dorade boxes mentioned in the previous post. Another weekend of this and I hope to be able to prime the rest of the exterior of the boat.

Outside (Red and Yellow will be made semi-gloss using flattening agent)

Cabin side lower : qt (2) KIR-24 KIRBY #24 RED MARINE PAINT QT

Cabin side upper: qt (1) KIR-11 KIRBY #11 YELLOW MARINE PAINT QT

Cabin tops and deck: hg (1) INT-YHS070KITHG INTERLUX PERFECTION CREAM HALF GAL

Hull: qt (2) INT-YHY999KITQ INTERLUX PERFECTION JET BLACK QT 6/CS (looking for a flattening agent for Perfection 2-part poly – don’t want this too shiny)

Inside (will be given a satin finish using flattening agent)

Main interior: qt (2) KIR-6 KIRBY #6 IVORY MARINE PAINT QT

Overhead and trim: qt (1) KIR-15 KIRBY #15 STRAW MARINE PAINT QT

Flattening agent for 1-part paint: qt (3) INT-YMA715Q INTERLUX YMA715 BRIGHTSIDE ADDITIVE GLOSS REDUCER-FLATTENING AGENT

Mmmmm, Bronze

These just came in. Two of the largest cowl-making companies have gone out of business lately, so it’s getting harder to find nice bronze cowl vents. These look nice and old-fashioned. From Davey & Company, via GreenBoatStuff.com.

     

The Dorade box is internal. The arrow in the second image points to the drain hole. Any water that comes in through the cowl will drain out there. The fresh air exits inside the boat through three vent holes. Each hole will have a stainless butterfly vent to close off the flow if needed. There is, of course, a matching vent on the starboard side.

Dry-Fitting the Portholes

I fitted the new portholes yesterday. Today I’ll seal the bare plywood with epoxy. The ports have springs in the hinges so they stay open automatically.  I also fitted the stern hatch so I can pre-drill the through-mounting holes on the hinge side and seal those holes at the same time.