Ordered the Windows and Ports!

     

  

I put together the order for Diamond/Sea-Glaze for the windows and New Found Metals for the portholes. The pictures above are of the white poster-board taped inside the windows, ready to be traced and sent in to be built.  I thought the boat looked very interesting like this, without the visual distraction of looking through the openings.  I decided to order the smaller 5″ ports (discussed a few posts ago). 

I printed up a bunch of order sheets and spray-glued one onto each tracing. Better safe than sorry on a multi-thousand dollar order!  This is the front center window. It’s hinged at the top to swing open. All the others are fixed (style D5 if you care :-)).  Sure is a lot of glazing for such a dinky boat.

First Primer

 

     I finally primed the whole cabin yesterday. This makes me very happy 🙂  I could have spent another weekend or two filling and sanding, but I need to keep telling myself that this isn’t a piece of furniture, it’s a tool that will get banged up and abused, and a fine finish is not necessary. Getting the thing in the water before summer is the priority!

I’m in the process of ordering the portholes and the main windows now. About $4500 for the lot of them.  This should be the last big expense before the motor and electronics.

Porthole Size Comparison

Trying to decide on the porthole size and placement…

• I’m mostly concerned with aesthetics – are they in proportion to the size of the boat and cabin? Are they the right height and location fore and aft?
• Relative strength is not a concern – these are very heavy ports
• Larger ones will make the cabin brighter and add more ventilation, but also make it less private, and the opening parts will be heavier and more obtrusive over the bed
• Pictures of a bunch of tugboats with round portholes, for comparison

Five-Inch Portholes

Eight-Inch Portholes

I think they’re placed a little too high in this picture.

http://www.newfoundmetals.com/catalog/pg04.html 

Working on the Pilothouse

I’ve spent the last few weekends finishing the pilothouse top and the new sliding door framework. It’s about ready to be primed and painted. At the same time, I added a new Port-side scupper because water pooled a bit when I washed the cabin. I’d hoped it would all run back to the stern scuppers, but it’s about 3/8 of an inch lower at that point.  It looks just like the Starboard scupper, only a few feet further aft.  I also cut openings for vents into the lockers fore and aft.  Other than filling and finish sanding, I’m approaching completion on the outside of the cabin.  I really want to get this finished and start working inside the cabin!

  

     

I got a Fein Multimaster for Yule, and I’ve been using it heavily, especially for sanding inside corners where nothing else worked well. It’s a great (and expensive) tool – thanks Meryll!

Another Thrilling Saturday Night

Boat Colors

(Edited 1/2/2008 to use the cleaned-up pictures. I used Paint.net to smooth the lines.)

Here’s the boat with Kirby paint colors.  I like the top one best so far. Maybe a little brighter than my final choices, but very pretty to my eye. 

 

 

 

…and a matching Coot burgee!