Construction Journal

Okay, now I'm as happy as I'm going to get with the fairing job. I am nowhere near the level of craftsmanship that I would like to accomplish, but I am certain that it's as good as I can make it given my current skill level. My son Sean keeps asking me if it will float. At this point in the project, that's hardly a measure for success.

It's been a while since I did any real work on the boat. That's partly due to the unavailability of suitable marine grade lumber in Phoenix, if you can imagine that. I finally broke down and ordered four sheets of very nice marine grade, 1/4" okoume, which arrived yesterday so now I have no excuses any more. Here I've placed the garboard strake and glued it up. I'm using brass wood screws to hold the strake in place while the epoxy sets up. They'll be removed and the holes filled when the time is right.

I apparently didn't measure something right, or something wasn't quite fair, but after setting the second garboard, you can see that there is a pretty large gap down the center line. I know I'll be able to work around the gap later, but I'm worried about the effect of the strakes being to low and throwing off the alignment of subsequent strakes.

In order for the next plank to lie properly at the stem, you have to chisel away a channel, or rebate for the plank to land on. I was actually dreading this, but it went pretty well.