Entering Orbit

Greg and I both had vacation between Christmas and New Years day. We had planned on having a couple of long sessions during this period, but that didnt happen. I was occupied with family and friends, but Greg was fortunate enough to get in several small touch-up sessions. In reality, thats what we needed. Were at the point that when we work together, its usually a short session because all we need to do is a little fairing here and a little sanding there. Of course Ive been saying "were getting close" for several months.

Last night was another minor breakthrough. Greg broke out the orbital sanders, and we started finish-sanding the transoms. What can I say. Were getting close.

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Spray Rails

Greg and I had a nice diversion from the seemingly-endless task of sanding and fairing this weekend as we mounted the spray rails to the boat. For those of you who arent familiar with spray rails, they are designed to reduce the amount of water that sprays you (and your friends and the deck of the boat) as you cruise through the water at higher speeds.

We built the spray rails out of cypress, which Greg chose for its extreme rot resistance. He bought three 10 foot long 1x1 sections, which we scarfed together to form a single, long rail, and then we diagonal-cut the single long piece, forming our two spray rails. After this, we prepped the spray rails by touching up the rough spots and by pre-drilling the holes.

Greg wasnt sure how he wanted to mount the spray rails... whether to follow the water line, the hull from the bottom, the hull from the top, or some hybrid. In the end, we followed the hull from the top, and drew our line using a jig. We epoxied the rails in place, and held them with stainless steel screws. After the epoxy cures and we do more touching up, we will fill in the screw holes (which were counter-sunk) with epoxy, making the seal truly water-tight.

Once again I forgot my camera, but I will try to get a shot or two in the near future.

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I Really Need a Picture

We havent done any pictures since January, and havent done any videos since... well, its been a little longer. The reason we havent done any pictures or videos is because things havent significantly changed in months. At least it doesnt seem that way to me.

Weve still been working on the hull... sanding and fairing, filling in the inevitable pinholes and sanding, and repeating as necessary. Weve added a couple more coats of tinted epoxy, and weve blended and shaped the spray rails to Gregs satisfaction. Weve been in sanding and fairing hell for over a year now. We started fairing in February 2006. By July, I was beginning to see the Law of Diminishing Returns kicking in. Id say that by August of 2006, we were firmly in sanding and fairing hell.

Greg and I have discussed this in depth on several occasions. Greg is a perfectionist by nature. He wants things exactly right before we paint. Im firmly convinced that the primer and paint will cover many of the imperfections we see now. I think that Greg is starting to come around to my way of thinking. But as I say this, I also acknowledge that some flaws weve corrected would not have been corrected by simply slapping a layer of paint on the hull. In the end, this is Gregs project, and Im his assistant.

Greg has said that if he had things to do over again, he would not have built up the perfectly sharp chines. He doesnt think that the performance payoff will outweigh the amount of work weve put in as a direct result of the chines. I tend to agree. So if youre thinking about building a boat, skip the sharp chines.

Part of the issue is that Greg and I are both family men. We have pretty busy schedules, so we can only get a couple of hours per week to work on the boat. This naturally extends the project by an order of magnitude. When I get frustrated, I try to keep this all in perspective.

With all of that said, I went back today and looked at our pictures from January. It doesnt look a lot different, but there is a noticeable improvement in the hull. The tinted primer helps smooth things out. The spray rails are shaped and blended. Yeah, I really need to take a picture.

Id also like to say hello to the newest member of my blog roll, Bruce Dillahunty at Craft-a-Craft.

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