Construction Journal

This was a scary bit. Since this boat will be rigged for sailing, I need a centerboard slot, which means that I have to cut huge, scary holes in my beautiful little boat. I marked off the width, which is 7/8" and used a big, nasty auger bit in my drill to cut several adjacent holes. I then attacked the resulting, somewhat bumpy slot with a rasp to smooth the slot out. It looks sort of okay, but now I'm worried that the thickness of the keel at the slot is a little skimpy. We'll see.

At this point I decided that the hull needed some protection before I proceeded to fit out the interior, so I elected to paint it. Scratched paint is easier to fix than gouged wood. I applied two coats of primer, sanding between each coat, and now I'm applying the first semi-gloss coat, one of two. It's nice to see something of how it will look when I'm done. Incidentally, I also applied a first coat of varnish on the transom and gunwales to make it easier to clean any accidental spills of paint I might scatter about, which turned out to be a bit prescient on my part, a nice change of pace from how things usually go.

I decided to go whole-hog and paint the sheer strake as well. Unfortunately the digital camera does not faithfully reproduce the color of the strake, which is quite a bit darker than the photograph shows, so I don't want to hear any griping about the ugly color I chose. It looks quite fine to me.

Here's a better picture of the boat. This picture was taken after two coats of primer, followed by two coats of semi-gloss. Don't look too carefully at the detail work, because it turns out that I can paint a straight line, even with masking tape, as well as I can cut one. Even so, I'm not too unhappy with it, even given the fact that it wouldn't win any awards for fine craftsmanship. Now, on to the interior! First the floors, then the knees, then the inwale, then the centerboard case, then the thwarts, then the seats, then the mast step, then the rudder, then the centerboard, then the spars, and heck, I'll be done!