No pictures...

I forgot to take the camera with me today, but I got some more work done.

I used dowels and plugged the holes where those engine brackets were bolted through the transom. After the glue sets up I'll sand it smooth. Then the transom will be ready for stain.

Next I measured, cut and dry-fit the blocking for the backs of the rear facing seats. Next, I'll start the staining and varnishing process on those.

I didn't quit. I'm no Sarah Palin.

The entire month of December was not conducive to working on a boat, in a tent, outside. In the last 4 weeks we saw only 2 days where the temperature broke 20 degrees. The second of which was today. After Kathy and I took the kids bowling, I got to work.

I fired up the space heater in the tent and got to work on finishing the interior panels. I bought a new jigsaw, so doing all the odd cuts was much faster. After 2 hours of work, the interior panels are done.

Next, I took the shop-vac to the boat and snapped some pictures.

It's coming together nicely.

Back to work...

After all the mess with the windstorm, I have finally got back to doing actual work on the boat.

I started off working on the replacement gunwale. I countersunk the fasteners and finish sanded the whole thing, especially at the seams. It is ready for stain (on the next relatively warm day).

Then, I began work on the interior panels. The hard ones - the ones with odd cuts. I worked for 2 hours and got a grand total ol 2 panels installed. It takes a while to cut, trim, test fit, cut some more, trim some more, and test fit again. The starboard side of the interior is done (except for a couple of pieces under the front dash.

GAH!!!!!

Last night the wind kicked up pretty good. Apparently, from watching the news today, there were gusts up to 50mph. Kathy and I were awoken by the flapping of the shed door. I looked out the window to see the boat house and about 4 feet of the bow of the boat sticking out the front.

We quickly threw on our shoes and ran outside. The tent shed had transformed itself into a giant sail. The front end, with each gust was pulling itself out of the ground by about 4 feet, and inching the whole thing backwards each time.

As I was looking around for cinder blocks and bungee cords, a big gust came and flipped the entire structure on it's side. Luckily , none of it even touched the boat. Kathy and I flipped it back over and started straightening it out. The two rear legs were bent a little, but I was able to bend them back into shape for the most part. We wound up having to open up the front and back doors in order to let the wind pass through the tent rather than pushing against it.

The stakes that came with the tent were utterly useless, so we had to tie the tent down to the heaviest thing we could find - the boat. With several bungie cords and an old broken 100 foot extention cord we tied the frame of the tent to the trailer under the boat.

Now the boat is filled with dirt and leaves. But all the sawdust and paint chips are gone.

Happy Thanksgiving

After going to Poppy's house to load up on Turkey and taters, I decided rather than sleeping off the tryptophans on the couch all afternoon, that I would put in a few hours on the boat.

I started out working on the interior panels, concentrating on the front cockpit area under the dash. I put in all of the panels that only needed straight cuts. All of the scribed pieces have not been done yet. I brought the small workbench out to the boathouse, but I didn't get around to working on them. Maybe later on this weekend. I also screwed the dashboard onto the frame. It will need some more bracing behind it to keep it from getting wobbly.

Next I trimmed the piece of mahogany that I made for the gunwale. It is temporarily held in place by some finish nails. I still have to sand it and round the edges.

After that, it was getting cold, so I went inside and worked on the table. I may not have mentioned that I am building a foldout table that will attach to the underside of the gunwale by hinges so that it can be stowed away while underway. I made it out of the mahogany from the old center console. Right now I am on the second coat of varnish.

Windows are in...

Tonight I reattached all of the hardware to the freshly refinished window frames and reinstalled them in the boat. In the picture, it looks like the colors don't match, but that's just because the windows and window frames are actually clean. The surrounding parts of the boat - not so much. There is a nice layer of dust on everything from when I sanded down the transom.

Next I finished installing the hinges for the aft bench seat and seat back. I used a 3 foot piano hinge. About halfway through, my screw gun died. Not the battery, the motor. I'll have to pick up a new one.

Not pictured: I did the last coat of varnish on the last of the interior panels.

Transom work...

Today, I worked on the transom. I sanded off all of the old varnish and paint. First I did the rough sanding just to get all the layers off. Then I started the medium grit sanding. The wood below the water line is a little darker than the wood above, probably because it was hidden from the sun under the paint. I am going to have to do some creative staining in order to even out the tone somewhat. I also cleaned out the spashwell. It was very dirty. I may have to take the steel wool to the finish in there and put a coat or two of varnish on it to shine it up.

There are some holes I will need to fill from the old dual engine brackets that I took off. They were bolted all the way through the transom. This is what they looked like before...