Saturday, December 19, 2009

Slow going

More slow going here in NH, very very little has been accomplished as of late. Between work, 5 F. deg. temps, and a sore back, I've been laying off my boat for a bit.

In the meantime check out my compatriot in CA!

The GIS fleet is building, people are getting STOKED, sailing will be going down! What are YOU waiting for!?!?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

On the road...

I've been at work, on the road for a bit now, with only minimal time (36 hrs or so) at home... just enough to catch up on chores, errands, do laundry, sleep, eat my one healthy meal of the week, and go back out the door again.

It's teeth grindingly frustrating. The clock ticks and still so much to do...

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

My gunwales scarf themselves.

That's how I roll. I don't have to scarf my gunwales, they'll do it themselves!

Check my mad scarfing skills:




So I decided to officially scarf my gunwales today, since I'm using temporary cheapo cedar to hold the shape of the hull. Last week I milled two .75"x4's (approx) into .75"x2's. Very close to the metric shape called for in the plans, actually, a little thinner and a smaller, but close enough. So I take one gunwale and just for kicks gently bend it around the starboard stern and CRACK!!! it breaks in two. I'm a tad perplexed, I didn't even it get it close to boat. So I grab the other gunwale from the 2nd stock, and it bends fine, as does its mate. Now I suspect the wood itself. I pick up the mate from the broken gunwale and ever so gently press it against the floor... CRACK! it splits in two with hardly any pressure what-so-ever on my end. I am dissapointed and perplexed. Its very fine Douglas fir with a nice even tight pattern, but now it would take multiple scarfs to get it to work.

Otherwise, I removed the screws from the bottom, ended up breaking the heads off of three of them, leaving the shafts in the wood (dammit). I also sat her down on the floor to see how she balanced and to enjoy that beautiful rocker. She's pretty.