Devil's in the Details

I believe Thursday will go down as the longest day spent on the boat thus far. I lost track but I'm guessing I spent at least 10 hours if not more on the boat. On what? The DETAILS! 

I started by lining up all my hardware with the appropriate boat parts. Then I went out to the boat and attached my two brass cleats to the forward bulkhead tabs. They will serve to tie off the line that I have running underneath the inwale. I also attached four strap eyes on the four bulkhead tabs which will give me a place to hook two ratchet straps to hold the mast down while in transport. The aft ones will also give me a place to tie off my mainsheet bridle. 

Next I tackled the deck plates. I soon realized that I had bought screws that were too short. Ugh! That meant I'd be making another trip to the hardware store. No big deal really because I discovered I was going to need some other things anyway. 

About that time Robin and I decided it was a good time to make a shopping run. We went to two hardware stores shopping for more hardware, got lunch and stopped at two grocery stores and two big box stores. We returned home around 2:00 and I immediately went back to work and worked until 8:25. I stood the mast up to see how it looked. It appears to be slightly out of plumb. Ugh!!!! That's my M-O: never plumb, level or square - no matter how hard I try. Oh, well. Can't fix it now. Maybe somehow I can straighten it up. May not matter a whole lot. The boat is seldom level anyway - LOL. 

I installed the mast gate. In order to do that, I had to cut to length and drill holes in two pieces of brass flat bar that I  had ordered and do the same with a piece of aluminum flat bar. I attached the brass and will save the aluminum for later. The gate is ok, but not a perfect fit. Oh, well - again. 

I attached my oar locks. In the process I inadvertently reversed the screws on one side. I switched them. The smaller ones still seemed tight. They were actually the same size just one shorter that the other. Didn't make that mistake on the other one. I sat in the boat with an oar and used a suggested method for locating the locks. I attached them two hand lengths in front of the thwart. It felt good so I went with it. 

Around 8:30 we made another run to the store. We stopped at three stores: Academy Sports for 50' of 3/16" rope for my tie off line and the two big box stores for more hardware. I think I'm still missing at least one bolt that I need. Not gonna make a special trip for that one.

I went back to work at 9:30 and stayed outside 'til after midnight. I finished the deckplate buttons, tied in the tie-off line and then went under the house to work on the rudder. I made good progress and should be able to hang it in the morning along with installing the drain plug. Both of those items will require some 3M 4200. I'll also affix the tiller to the rudder, howbeit without the one bolt I'm missing. 

Here are a few pics of the mast up and tied to a cleat.

The boat is about ready for the big reveal on Sunday night at church, but there is still much to be done before launching. 

Update: That mast thing has bothered me since I looked at it. Today I took a closer look. The trailer is not level and the boat is not quite sitting on the trailer level. I took a straight board and laid it across the gunnel and set a drywall T square on the board. Eyeballing it again it looks pretty close - maybe off 1 or 2" in nearly 17'. I can live with that.

Trailer Done

I finished the trailer refit today. Boy, has it been a long two days! I'm logging 13 hours for the last two days but it may actually be a little more than that. I took some vacation time so that I can get the boat ready for the "Big Reveal" at church this Sunday night. The boat will not be done but I do want it to show well.

Today I installed the last two bunks, the trailer winch and the jack stand. The bunks took four tries to get it right. The fit was so tight I had to really figure out to get it in with the parts that I had. I wound up putting them near the outside of the trailer frame within a "Y" at the outer edge. 

One thing I noticed today: the boat is not level on the trailer. Ugh! I had my suspicions with the aft bunks not being of equal height. Same happened with the front ones. I had "eyeballed" the trailer from the rear. Looked close. After doing the bunks, I looked at it from the front: obviously off. I'm not going to make a big deal of it right now, but imagine that I'll want to correct that at some point. 

I also installed the winch today. It required a good bit of effort. The thing is super heavy and awkward to handle and the post was too big for the u-bolts. I took my granddaddy's old big hammer and pounded on it for a while and made it fit!

I also installed the bow eye. It was barely long enough to go through the inner and outer stems. I'll have to go back and add some 3M 4200 before I take her out on the water. I have a tube but I have to use it within 24 hours of opening. I'll wait until I have several things to do at once. 

And here's the jack stand. It's like brand new. The guy I bought the trailer from must have liked me because he threw in the winch and stand at the last minute for no extra money. Two big ticket items. 

Now it's on to the hardware. I did make a stop at Lowes this afternoon so I'll be ready to go with that part of the project. 

Boat on Trailer!

Sunday afternoon we moved the boat to the trailer! What a milestone! One of the last ones except of course the launch!

I had to put the carpet on the plank, but that wasn't too big a deal. 

We weren't able to move it until after the evening church service, so we did it in the dark. Here she it:

Today I spent seven hours (that's right - 7 HOURS!) working on the trailer bunks and supports. What a grueling task. It took 3 hours to do the back two bunks. After lunch I worked on the front ones and never got them done. I'm up to plan "D". Will try that tomorrow. I think it will work. I did manage to get a forward support installed. Trying to do this on the cheap so I used what I had. I thought that would be easy but everything I did was wrong! Ugh! Finally got it together, but the the roller doesn't role. I may try to loosen up the blocks of wood so that it will. The blocks are too close together. Another layer of plywood between the blocks and the tongue should fix that. 

We'll see how these work. They really done have to carry any weight. They just keep the boat upright. The aft ones are between the aft bulkhead and first floor timber so it should be fairly strong. The second ones are right at the midship frame so they too should be sturdy. The adjustments to the plank seem to be about right. I think I have a good bit of contact from the skeg up to the daggerboard slot. I think I'm going to be ok. I'll certainly give the arrangement a test drive before any serious travel. 

I need to install the winch post and winch and then the jack stand, then I'll be finished the trailer for a while (I hope). 

 

Trailer & Boat Prep

I'm hoping to put the boat on the trailer tomorrow (Sunday). Today I spent the afternoon/evening doing final prep work for that move. 

First, I went about getting some measurements on the shape of the boats bottom. It is not going to sit flat on the trailer plank. I wanted to see where the pressure points would be and if I could spread the load around. I wound up making two wedges to take up what would be "air space" if not filled. Hopefully these will give the bottom more direct contact with the plank on the trailer. They taper from about 1/2" to 0" for one and from 11/16" to 1/8" for the other. I had hoped to get a little more done but ran out of daylight.

I also felt like I needed to get the aluminum runners on the bottom of the boat. Once it's on the trailer that would be tough. I'd like to keep those sacrificial wooden strips from getting scraped up and eventually rotting. Hoping this will help.  A lot of people use brass but that's mucho mulla! There are four pieces.

I've picked up some indoor/outdoor carpet. It shouldn't take but a few minutes to cut it and tack it to the trailer plank tomorrow before we put the boat on it. I don't have the bunks done, but that can come on Monday. I'll also have to jockey my boats and trailers around before moving the boat. 

Trailer Refit

Of course, I bought a used trailer early last year - shortly after I began the build. It's time to fit out the trailer to my boat. 

I've pondered the best way to do it. After much thought and looking at some other trailers (though there really isn't much out there to be seen) I've come up with a plan. 

It took two evenings to take off the old fittings and strip the trailer down to its frame. Here's a box full of the old stuff. Most of the old bolts broke. I borrowed a grinder with cutting blade from a fellow church member to cut some of the stuff off especially the roller which had frozen to the sleeves.

My plan is to put a plank down the middle of the trailer for the boat to rest upon and use some of the old hardware to add bunks. The cross members of the frame have holes drilled all over them. They had used those to attach rollers. I decided to bolt 2x4's to them to give me something to bolt the plank to. Here's the first one. I notched it because this cross member is higher than the rest. The forward part of the plank will end here.

Here all of the short 2x4 pieces are bolted into place and the plank is lying across them. I have drilled the holes to countersind the lag bolts so that they will not sit above the level of the plank. 

Here is the plank bolted into place.

Here is the last cross member. There was a gap at the rear of the trailer no doubt for an outboard which I will not have.

I notched it as well.

Here's a closeup of the countersunk lag bolts.

Today I spent several hours looking for square u-bolts. It took me four stores to find them. Tomorrow I plan to rough-in the bunk supports and winch. Final fitting will have to wait until the boat is on the trailer. 

 

Exterior Painting

I moved my boat outside planning on spraying the exterior. Before I started I needed to finish up the drain plug hole. I started the hole on the inside. I waited to finish cutting it because I didn't want to damage the exterior fiberglass by pushing the hole saw through it. So I finished cutting the hole and filled the hole with slightly thickened epoxy. I put a block of wood under the hole and jammed a piece of wood up against it to hold it in place. I also put a bowl over the top to keep the top side from getting messed up by the tarp which I threw over it for the night.

I'll be drilling a hole through the epoxy soon to install the plug. The epoxy will keep any water from seeping into the edges of the plywood. 

Because I was going to spray the exterior, I needed to cover the rest of the boat to prevent overspray from getting on anything - in this case rubrail, gunnel and even the inside brightwork. Then I tipped the boat up so that I could paint the keel plank and garboards in a near vertical position.

Unfortunately, I could not get the sprayer going. For one thing, my compressor kept throwing the breaker. After about 3-4 times I gave up. I wound up roll and tipping the exterior. 

I also threw the Kroil to the trailer. I hoping to use most of the fitting for the "refit". First I have to break loose the nuts on all the fittings. I think I have a plan.

Today I painted the cove stripe. Again I had to cover the entire boat to protect from overspray. In the pic everything is covered except the sheer plank. 

Here is the plank painted. I used Krylon Regal Blue. It took four cans and about a dozen light coats. I did not want any runs, drips or errors (so said Johnny Bench). I did have two runs early on but figured out that I needed to turn loose of the trigger when I changed directions. Went fine after that. 

Then end result looks really nice. The surface is still rough from the epoxy coating, but I'll have to live with it. In the long run, I don't think it will matter. I'll still enjoy the boat, and it will still draw the looks. 

Where Did My Boat Go?

We moved the boat out into the yard last night. Getting ready to finish the exterior painting. Exciting days!