There has been a little progress since my last entry. I painted the interior. I was quite happy with the the colour match the guy at builders supply land came up with.

The side benches are cut out and clamped in place. I still have to make and install the knees that will support them in the middle. I have also epoxied the mast steps in place.

During good weather I will start to work on the masts and spars and in the shitty weather I will continue with the floors and the rest of the finishing touches. The center board and rudder also need some work.

Thwarts, Mast Partners, Breast Hooks

Here the thwarts and mast partners are cut out and lying unsecured on the cleats. There were a few f__k ups but I managed to patch them up. The breast hooks are supposed to be a real test of your wood working skills. In my case they will display my epoxy patching skills.

Centerboard case and thwart cleats

Here the center board case is almost finished

Spent a lot of time trying to get the cleats lined up right.

Have also roughed out the centerboard and rudder components.

Gunwales and Epoxy

I am off to a slow start on the inside of the boat. Here the three layers of wood making up the inner gunwales are finished. I have slapped some fairing compound on the worst of the irregularities on the inside. After that I put two coats of epoxy over everything. Just in time because some of the recent heavy rains have started leaking through the roof and into the open container of my boat.

Next I will work on the breast works. ( the little piece that fits into the spot where the gunwales and stems meet. All the articles call for advanced carpentry skills at this stage. We will see.
Then the centerboard case.

Flipping the boat and a new bunch of challenges

Three of my neighbours came over and we carried the boat out of the tent and rolled it on the ground and put it back on the strongback.

I haven't got around to supporting it properly so that I can work inside. There were a few f--k ups revealed but nothing that a little loving care can't fix up or hide.

Everyone commented on how huge it seems inside. Today I will get it properly supported and put some temporary thwarts on it to line it up and support the sides. After that I will do some remedial work to the epoxy inside. There are a couple of screws that came through the stems that I have to deal with. I expect that these chores will eat up a lot of time.

finishing the outside hull

 An ordered workbench reflects an ordered mind.

 Here is the hull with two coats of epoxy on it.

 The ugly white stuff is the fairing compound cleaning up the scarf joints and screw holes. I put two layers of fairing compound on and sanded them smooth. If I was shooting for perfection I would still be messing around with fairing compound.

 Here is the hull with one coat of aklyd paint. This colour is Dory Buff. It was a popular colour in Newfoundland for finishing dorys.

 I think it will look alright after about three coats.

Next I will glue and screw a piece of slippery plastic on the bottom of the keel and then it will be time to flip the boat and tackle the wonders inside.

shaping and glueing on the outer stems

Here I have made a little progress shaping the outer stems. They are ready for gluing. After the epoxy has dried I will fit on the keel. Once again I underestimated how long this would take.