Went on Vacation and All I Got Was This Lousy iPhone

It's hard to believe that a little more than a week ago, we were anchored off Palomino Island in the Fajardo Bay off Puerto Rico. It was 80 degrees with a steady 10 knot trade wind from the east. Idyllic is an understatement. Fast forward some time, and it's 27 degrees with "ice showers" coming down on the heads of St. Paddy's Day revelers. I doubt anyone feels anything. The two people I know in the parade have been drinking since Friday night (it's Monday as I write this).

View over the starboard lifelines. Anchored at Palomino Island.

Cabin of the 42 Beneteau.

View of Palomino.

Skippers pose underway.

Skippers pose docked.

Reading by cabin light.

Little feller...

Isleta Marina from the Conquistador. We stayed as liveaboards at this marina.

Stand up paddling off Esperanza.

How not to dock a sailboat.

The blog has been quiet as I waited for a new phone to arrive. Anchored off Icacos Island last week, my wife and I decided to swim to shore with a couple sandwiches and my phone. I put the phone in a zip lock bag and that was pretty much the end of that. I received my new iPhone (!) the other day and spent the last couple days putting my electronic life back together. I've never had an iPhone before (the soaked phone was a Note 3) so it's going to take some getting used to it.

Anyway, regarding the build, I'm just about done with the electronics. I have the wiring pretty much done back there except for the side cabin lights and the speakers that will come down from the cockpit lockers. It was a real kick to hear the rear cabin speakers fire up and fill the garage. The amusing thing is the first channel that came up on the scanner was a Christian rock station, which I didn't know was a Christian rock station. I actually kinda liked the music. And then I listened to the lyrics. It was like taking confession in my half-built hull: PocketShip progress and a cleansed soul! Two-fer!

I'll post some pictures of both when I get the pics off the the other camera.

Speakers 2 - Aft Speaker Boxes

Tonight was one of those nights when not a lot went right. I wanted to make some progress on the transom area so that I can finally drop the cockpit decking down, but it's slow going. I started out with some wiring. All the wires back there except the horn/bilge now have terminals. Everything's official - Ancor marine wire with heat shrink tubing.

Rear wiring done except for the bus bars and bilge pump.

That left a pretty hefty check list, still:

• Build speaker boxes
• Install bilge pump (haven't gotten it yet)
• Run wiring and bus bars
• Build laz "floors"
• Prep and paint

As a work colleague would say, the long pole in the tent is the speaker box build. I started by applying a nice layer of epoxy on the circle cut outs that house the speakers. That went ok, and I wiped up any runners before it would affect either the paint or the transom. But even then, I realized I only had one latex glove left so had to be really careful not to muck up my exposed fingers. A quick run to the Big Box Store solved that. (I checked on my lumber order while there. It's still a week away.)

I then measured and cut the cleats that would form the frame of the speaker box. The speakers I have are low profile, but they still jut in about 1 1/2". Allowing another 1/2" for the sound and fury, I'm looking at a 1 3/4" frame with 1/4" backer. The problem is in my rush to put down the laz cleats for the floors some weeks ago, I grabbed whatever I had available. That meant the bottom cleats are a different size than the top cleats. Oops...

The speaker cleats started life as a block of pine lying around the shop. Actually, they started life as a pine tree, but who cares about that.

Block o' pine. Not sure where this came from.

Block o' pine ready for duty.

I assured a dry fit then epoxy'd them up.

Fits pretty good.

Epoxy'd and cleated. This will be watertight.

I drilled a hole in the inboard cleat to run the speaker wire out. This is now filled with epoxy but I'll drill a smaller hole. This is of course to prevent seepage back here. I'm not real happy with the close ups of epoxy runs under the cleats, but not much I can do (or more importantly, want to do) about it. This is the sealed up, watertight, non-visible area of the transom. I would've liked to be more conscientious here, but wasn't.

Something to note is that the manual asks to put the cleats that ride on BH 8 facing inside the cabin. If I did that, I'd have internal speaker boxes and given much more attention to the squeezeout. In any case, I think it's much better to face these inside the laz vs. inside the cabin.

Well, watertight except for the hole I've drilled for the speaker wire. But if water gets up that high, seriously...

I then found some marine ply scrap and cut the backer. I dry fit this and it looks good. But I want to epoxy this on both sides before installing it. This will be glued and screwed to become a permanent part of the build tomorrow. Some folks wondered how I'd make aft speakers watertight. Well, here it is.

Backer fitted. There will still be plenty of room in the laz for assorted junk.

Some fancy jiggering got the port box done and acceptable, but the starboard side is a bit off. I got tired of trying to fit cleats so I quit for the night. One of these days, both sides will be even.

Baby Got Back - Prepping the Transom

Over the last few days, I've managed to firmly and permanently secure most of the sole to the floors and cleats in order to prepare for the cockpit decking.  I say "most" because I'm about 80% done and stuck.  When I first shaped the planks that would become the sole, I started portside and worked my way inside, then out to starboard.  That meant by the time I got to the starboard planks, I was fairly well versed in the machinations of floorboard fitting.  (Aside from sanding fillets, this was the least fun part of the project thus far.)

Fast forward six months:  I began installing the sole on the starboard side first, only because my step ladder was on that side.  Most pieces slid in easily and the pre-drilled holes securely held their shapes.  I was dutifully impressed with my work because there no were squeaks and, for the most part, everything lined up well, even the lift outs which I built a little blind.  As I started prepping the planks for the last three outboard slats portside, things didn't seem quite as good.  There was a raised area where there shouldn't be and one board wouldn't stay screwed down as the pilot hole was too big for the screw.

Scratching my head, I wondered what the heck happened.  How did starboard go down so well and port did not?  And then I realized that the portside planks were the ones I did first.  They were part of the initial learning curve, and suffered for it.  I'll need to pull them out, reshape some, varnish others, and fill the current pilot holes with epoxy before trying again.  The joys of boatbuilding.

Rather than do that, I took a pause and prepared for the Super Bowl.  While the game was a bust, these were a hit, courtesy of a friend's wife, a professional baker.

These were seriously good.

I contributed these: blueberry pecan banana quick bread.

These were a hit, too.

And all the while, tried to avoid looking outside. Yes, that's about 18 inches of snow on my patio.

I don't know why I even have the window shades up.

Work got the best of me over the last couple days, but I did find time tonight with my wife at a work outing.  She's at a Minnesota Wild hockey game, luxury box seats.  She doesn't even like hockey.  How's that for fair?

With the plank-work set aside for now, the first thing I had to do was empty the transom of its assorted junk.  Thirty minutes later, I finally ran the aft wiring through the vinyl tubing.  The tubing will act as a conduit and protect the wires from any water that weasels its way into the transom. Supposedly, this will work in watery environments from -40 to 140 degrees. I then lathered on enough silicon to create a lifeform, then secured it with a stainless steel band.

I also decided tonight that I will add a bilge pump back here. I see no reason why not: it's the wettest reported area in the boat, and anything I can do to keep water away from the thru-hull and the wires will go a long way towards the life of the build. I'll put the same one in I have in the cabin and run it out through the same hole in the footwell side. I didn't plan to put one here from the outset so I don't have a proper hotwire. I think I can use the green one I'd set aside for the horn as the hotwire as both the horn and the bilge pump should be 'always on.' That could be fun in the marina if I get a short in this circuit.

Wires run through the conduit. It was a bear to get this through but eventually did it.

Close up of thru-hull at BH-8. The left is the bilge pump drain. I'll be putting another bilge pump back here.

I pulled the battery from the bedroom and tested the wires as they ran from the forward locker to the transom. All of the wires work, I'm pleased to report. However, as I was taking this photo, I realized a mistake.  I needed to pull one of the speaker wires through about 3 feet more than the other to reach the far speaker. With all the friction in there, these wires aren't going anywhere, so I'll need to make a couple butt joints and wire the speaker the hard way. No fun.

I then routed through small vinyl tubes which will carry wires aft from the cabin. To do so, I drilled a path through the corners of bulkheads 7 and 8. These will run just under the support cleats and will each carry one wire. The tube acts as a mini conduit for protection and allows me to seal up the drilled holes yet still have access to run a new wire if necessary. Practically, I can now run wires to and from the cabin without messing with the wires under the sole. The plan is these will power the cabin LED strip lights mounted underneath, but can be used for anything.  With the cabin deck down and the tubes secured up against the cleat, they're not noticeable.

Small hole drilled at corner of bulkhead 7 to support the vinyl tubing. This will be filled with epoxy. The wires are test wires and will be removed.

The tubing runs along the cleat now but will be secured against it soon. I haven't decided how long a LED strip I want to run back here.

Another hole at the corner of bulkhead 8 into the laz area. This will allow me to run wires easily fore-and-aft if necessary.

Soon I'll be building the speaker boxes and installing the bus bars. Little random globs of epoxy need to go where the wood got exposed here and there, and I need to finalize the planks on the sole before securing it down. The upside is everything looks really good as I'm taking my time through this part of the build. Once the decking goes down, that's it. I'll be too preoccupied with the portlights to care..

The Tubes to Nowhere

The weather didn't hold up here as much as it held on, so there wasn't much in the way of epoxy and/or painting. While standing in the boat, my tools and equipment strewn about, I wondered aloud as to why I'm not farther along. I have the planks for the sole sitting in the kitchen, where they've been for a few days. I have unfinished touch up painting. I still don't have the dashboard cutout. And then I looked down and saw a mass of wires and understood. My obsession with the wiring scheme has easily cost me a month, maybe more, in the build. In the end, I'll get what I want, but at what price wires?

Here's what's going on back here:

1. Port/Starboard Locker LEDs (blue)
2. Port/Starboard Lazarette LEDs (blue)
3. Port/Starboard rear cabin lights (white - wires will run aft through the corner of bulkhead 7)
4. Stern light
5. GPS/Chartplotter
6. 4-12 volt 'cigarette lighters,' two on each side installed in the locker wall.
7. Port/Starboard cabin speakers
8. Port/Starboard locker speakers
9. RAM3 VHF microphone
10. Horn button & wiring (controlled from cockpit with horn in dorade box)

The good news is I managed to pull the wires all the way through the conduit using a plumber's snake. Was surprisingly easy once I found the right tool to do that. I'll have a couple dual bus bars back there (one for electronics, the other for lights) and another for the speakers.

The wiring scheme from the transom back.

The conduit threw up on my rug.

Conduit and wires running into the front storage locker.

I've been to the Big Box store easily 6 times in the last few days trying to find the perfect way to ensure that I can run the wires aft-forward without risk of swamping the boat. That's because anything that comes through bulkhead 8 must be watertight, but I keep having to buy things to test and fit. The tubes are a prime example. Since the through-hulls are 1/4", the tubes have to be 1/4" inside diameter. The larger conduit is 7/8" inside diameter, so the outside diameter of such tubes have to be no more than that if I want them to fit snugly. Unfortunately, 3/4" ID / 7/8" OD doesn't exist. I tried shaving down a bit of it and jamming it into the conduit but it doesn't work. That means I'll have to go the other way: get a larger tube to stick the conduit and smaller tube in to ensure it's watertight and secure. That means another $15 and yet another trip to the Big Box store. Oh, well.

Two sets of speaker wires, two sets of pos/neg, and a thin wire for the horn. Yes, a horn. The horn will be in the dorade box.

Frustrated, I gave up trying to finalize the wires (and therefore, permanently installing the sole) until I can get the last little bit of tubing to do this. It took a bit to get up the courage, but I made the leap and installed bulkhead 8 speakers. Now, I posted a question about this on the PocketShip forums and to a man, everyone said it was a bad idea, mostly because of stuff getting in the way of a proper sound, and two, because people aren't sure how to make it watertight. The watertight business is easy. The speakers are low profile, only jutting 1 1/2" inches, which means together with the thickness of bulkhead 8, it's a simple matter of building a small speaker box into the lazarette area.

As luck would have it, the portlight/deadlight was the same size as the speaker. It served as a good template to mark the circle to cut, and then follow with a jigsaw. I wasn't too worried about precision here as long as the cabin view was flush and neat. I'd take care of any issues with the jigsaw with some epoxy, what else.

Speakers installed. I was deciding between two designs. The caterpillar on the right is a LED strip that will run under the cleat. Wires will run aft into the laz and then the hole will be sealed.

From behind. I'll close this off with a watertight box spanning the cleats. The wires will run out a small hole drilled near the top and sealed with silicon.

As for blocking the speakers with dunnage (sailor speak for assorted sailing crap stored in the cabin) I suppose that's possible, even likely. PocketShip #1 has some neat speakers mounted on bulkhead 7 that jut a bit into the cabin. They're of course perfectly placed and aren't blocked by anything. But when I was on PS #1 over the summer and laid down, I came really close to kicking the speakers. That would've been bad, and made me think there must be a better place to put them. Structurally, bulkhead 8 bears weight so removing a bit of it is a risk. With the boxes epoxy'd in back, I think it'll replace most of the structure from the cut out. I'm not sure if I want to continue the massacre of bulkhead 8 and install deck plates. It'd be nice to install them so I have access to the laz without exiting the cabin, but I'm not sure I want to take down bulkhead 8 anymore than I have already.  Ahh... who am I kidding...

dunnoduncare

One of the interesting things I've found about building PocketShip is how much less I care about some things I cared a lot about not long ago. One of these things is my lazarette compartment.

In the traditional design, the area between bulkhead 8 and the transom has a good layer of flotation. While watertight, it's otherwise open to the elements. Open the hatches, and you're staring at flotation. Water gets in there through rain or worse and without a bilge drain, it can get a bit, shall we say, musty (I'm looking at you, PocketShip #1).

Aesthetically, no one wants to stare down into Menard's finest home insulation. Practically, it makes it that much harder to find the beer. Many builders have installed "floors" here to separate the laz area from the flotation, which of course is an idea I'll borrow mercilessly.

Back in August, I carefully and skillfully measured the area I wanted back there. I wanted to leave a certain height to fit a 3 gallon gas tank. I measured it so carefully I was afraid to cut the cleats until everything was just so. Fast forward two months, and there were still no cleats, until tonight, anyway.

I was working on the battery platform (another long-delayed build) and mixed up too much epoxy. Rather than let it harden in the cup, I decided to go ahead and use it for the laz cleats. I couldn't find my original notes with the careful measurements, so I ran upstairs to the boat and quickly measured out 22", 26", and 17", and cut them from a ribbon of pine I had laying around the shop. The longest and shortest ones needed a 15 degree bevel to support the rake of the transom and hull.

Laz cleats in place. Left to right: 17" 26" 22". The 17" and 26" get 15 degree bevels. I aligned it with the bottom of the footwell. If I'm off a little, I'll just raise with dowels or something.

Ten minutes later, they were epoxy'd and screwed into place and I suddenly have port side laz cleats. The rest of the epoxy in the cup was getting too hard so couldn't do the starboard side, but it was nice to get something done that's been on the agenda for a long time. I don't know if it'll fit my 3 gallon gas tank, but it doesn't matter. Not lost on me is how quickly I was able to do this, based on my original attempts when building the deck cleats.

A benefit to doing this is now I can size and cut the holes for the deck plates that will give me access to the laz area from the cabin. That was an idea from mtsailor, a builder from the boards. Turns out I can fit a full 6" plate there if I want but I'll probably go a little smaller so as not to interfere with the deck or footwell.

I also expanded the holes for the secondary limber holes I drilled into the floorboards. The original secondary holes I cut into the floorboards were 7/8". The conduit I got is bigger than that, so I had to make the hole bigger. I used the old woodworker's trick of a pilot hole. First, cut the new sized hole into a piece of scrap. Then center the scrap over the old hole and clamp/secure it in place. Then drill the new hole. The scrap wood will hold the hole saw in place while you cut the bigger hole.

Scrap with new hole clamped over old hole.

I then trimmed back some of the plastic of the thru hulls and they look and fit great. I test fit the new conduit and ran a wire down the length. Very satisfying to have something work. This is a huge win for my intolerance for wires. I'll have a couple in the cabin - unless I can figure out how to invisibly run the RAM3 wire - but there won't be many.

Trimmed back the thru hulls. They fit and look great.

View of thru hull from above. Transom is to the left. To the left.

The only thing missing from the electrical infrastructure was the battery platform. A battery platform can be very simple, and indeed, many PocketShips have a couple pieces of scrap holding up the battery box, and that's just fine. I don't know why I decided to build a xylophone for my battery platform, but I did. I think it's because these were the closest bits of wood near me and I wanted to see if I could make it fit the design.

Getting the angles right was tricky. It reminded me of the exercise in futility that was the sole: measure once, cut twice, measure four times, cut once, until it fits. Finally happy, I mixed up some epoxy and screwed the pieces down with brass screws. This will then be epoxy'd onto the hull permanently, and the battery box platform will be screwed into this. Whew!

Xylophone? Nope -- battery box holder. Top holes for conduit; bottom arch for limber/water flow.

It fits pretty well. I drilled a couple holes in case I wanted to run the conduit through, but seriously, this whole exercise was completely unnecessary. In hindsight, I think I was just having fun in the shop again after ignoring the build for so long.

Lamination of cabin sole, part 2. Some day this will be done.

The last sole lamination for the sole was done tonight. That means I'm completely done with this finishing project. The manual mentions it's a big finishing job - file that under no sh!t!

I'm undecided if I want to build the speaker boxes before painting, or paint before the speaker boxes. I'd like to bust out the primer and paint as little as possible, but I know I'll be painting the top sides whenever I get around to that, which means if I put off the speaker boxes until then, no harm.

View from the garage at the rear of the other boat. It was a nice late afternoon to work. That's my father in law back from a walk,

Dasher & Dancer

Quick post to show off the 3/4 done dashboard I'm installing. After a LOT of angst and diorama fun, I decided on the bottom design.

Scrap piece of 1/2" ply. Looks like a modern art dog. I will recreate this some day. The dash came from the belly.

Layout of template in pencil.

Rough cut of template. I used a rasp to get these to spec then sanded.

Why are things where they are? That's quite a metaphysical question. It's a little different layout from the one from a couple days ago. My wife, who is an expert ergonomical entity, suggested a couple changes that I incorporated here. First, the VHF below the radio didn't leave a lot of room to mess with the radio buttons. They both jut out about 1/4" and need their own space. I left the VHF on the right because I plan to tuck the mic behind the locker against a board, noting that this contraption will eventually be a 4-sided box without a top and bottom. The back of the box, on a hinge, will be where I'll put the solar controller and bus bars.

I also moved the 12v chargers to the top because there will be a small shelf between the dorade vents on bulkhead 2. This top shelf will be a nice place to rest charging things like phones and pads. I found some cool and cheap 12v USB lights and fans that can also enjoy the higher view from that shelf. It doesn't (I don't think) look as good, but it will be far more functional.

Once I'm able to install the voltmeter (it's somewhere in the Sea of China as I type this) and the switch, the row below the radio will look complete. There wasn't much I could do about the master kill switch. I thought about putting that around the back, too, but it is far too bulky to sit anywhere but here.

Dry fit of the components. Missing is a 2nd 12v charger on the right and the voltmeter in the middle. Haven't decided if I want to put a hook for the vhf mic there or a rocker switch for the cabin lights. The white bar above the radio is actually a 6" red led. I'll have a 12" one on the cabin roof, so the rocker switch will come in handy.

This post reminds me of my conversation with the Marine store guy awhile back, the one with the 26 footer without "as much stuff as I'm putting in". First, I don't think this is a lot of stuff. Maybe the VHF is extra but radios and lights shouldn't be luxuries reserved for larger boats. Second, I'm ready to go with 3 bus bars. He didn't think I needed even one. I don't see how that's possible if this is to be a clean, functional , safe build. Third, screw that guy. If I want to put in a radar tower and launch rockets off the bow, he should tell me what I need to do it, not convince me that somehow a small boat is an inferior object, not worthy of superior equipment. I didn't even tell him I've got a GPS, bilge pump, and a horn in the circuit. Yes, a horn! I'm not even waiting for fog to use that thing. This is so, so much more fun than epoxy.

Still some work to do but nice to see this one coming together. I'll likely be painting this white with a dark wood trim (probably whatever padauk I have leftover). I'd originally planned to keep this bright, but I got some significant tearout from the jigsaw, plus the bulkhead will be bright.

Speaking of padauk, I picked up another few board feet of it today from the still-awesomely named "Hardwood Supply". I walked in and the first thing he said to me was, "Got any pictures?" Of course I do... so I showed him the boom gallows, tiller, and floor so far. He was duly impressed. Readers may remember that the hardwood supply guy's dad built a 54' schooner that still sails. He spends his weekends taking care of it. I dig that quite a bit.. but not that much as I want to because he still refuses to get me good lengths of clear cut pine. He's a HARDWOOD supply, he reminds me. I'm still working on it.

You're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Many people think the Richard Dreyfuss character says, "You're gonna need a bigger boat" in Jaws, but in fact it's the Roy Scheider character. Fewer people know that the line was actually ad libbed by Scheider. I remember watching it as a kid and not going near the Jersey Shore for a couple summers. It's fitting that I'm thinking of terror on the water as I'm building a boat by hand.

I couldn't take it anymore and bought a boat last week. It's s/v Islander, a 1970 Macgregor, gotten for a song. I haven't decided if I want to rename her. Islander has good sails and standing rigging, a good keel, and a 6 hp motor with a terrific trailer. Most importantly, it doesn't leak. The cushions double as terrariums, so they gotta go, and she could use an electrical overhaul. But otherwise, she will be a fine weekender and I plan to use her that way. No one will mistake her for a sleek and sexy craft (except maybe me). But I'm really happy with the addition. Islander will be moored at Lake Nokomis, a 200 acre lake in the city of Minneapolis.

She's a good old boat; the previous owner took her to the Apostles and sailed the entire length of the Mississippi over 6 weeks to the Gulf of Mexico. He said the boat was too choppy on the Gulf, so he turned around and went back to New Orleans where he then trailered it home. I'm not certain if he intended to keep going in the Gulf. Make a left out of the Mississippi and you'll hit Florida. Make a right, Mexico. Straight ahead and a little to the left you're smoking cigars with the brothers Castro. Now beyond retirement age, the salty dog said his kids and grandkids prefer pontoons to mainsheets. You could hear the disappointment in his voice and that made me a little sad, too. I am sure this boat brought him many fond memories and I hope to add some of my own.

The first question I got when I started telling people is, "What about the boat in your garage?" To which I reply, "What about it?"  Of course I'm going to keep working on it. The Macgregor is there to keep my skills up and lowers my reliance on friends to take me sailing. I really enjoy being out with Chris/Chucky B. and Beth/Rudder Chaos, but it's tough when I know the wind's up and all I want to do is drop my keel and go.

Oh, about the boat in the garage. I'm still working on fitting the floorboards. They're coming along. I wound up short maybe 2-3 boards of padauk, so will need to get some more. I plan to use padauk for the rub rails, too, so I'm looking at maybe 5-6 boards for good measure. I'm not sure how I woefully underestimated the board feet on this, because I don't have a lot of waste. I can only think the boom gallows and tiller took up more boards than I planned.

After a couple hours, I got a little bit of a system down for the floorboards. Starting out, this wasn't very intuitive. In the end, the best tools for me were a piece of scrap pine to note the shape, my bandsaw to make a rough cut of the bevel (the angle of the hull transferred to the board) and then the random orbital to smooth out the cuts. No one will see the bottom of these. As long as they sit snug, that's good enough for me.

I wish there were a better system I could articulate here as the manual and other blogs aren't clear. Even the ones that acknowledge this isn't easy don't provide too helpful advice. All I can share is that you'll know when you know so keep trying to know. The way I think about is I'm actually trying to slot a board into a space, like a peg in a hole. One side, let's say, is inboard, and will be thicker than the outside if it's a port board. The outboard corner will be beveled to accept the angle of the hull. This can be quite thin. So the idea is to shave off a bit until the board lies flat.

The photo below illustrates that (I think). The scrap piece of pine was my level. If I take the scrap pine over to the right in the photo, which in this case is outboard on the port side, I'll have an area underneath. That area underneath is the profile of the next board. I wanted to be sure that the thinnest I wanted to go was 1/4". That let me know where to cut the angle if viewing the board from the from the top because if the thinnest part of the board was 1/4", I could eyeball where to place the corner of the board. Since the whole setup will be cut to the fair curve, precision isn't that important, just a good visual flow.

Oh, that's right. Floorboard fun. A test for a level bevel. Needed just a bit more.

This method, though, takes a lot of incremental cuts. It's definitely not scientific nor efficient. But it works and the boards don't squeak when I walk on them, so I can't complain. If not for being short of wood, I would've finished them tonight in preparation for the fair curve.

I put in another accent board aft of the centerboard trunk and also added a 3/4" strip of ash 2/3 of the way out. Two reasons for that: one, I think it complements the design. I also found that using an accent board with 3" standard boards requires a small strip on the last couple outboard boards. The ash makes up the difference without adding a small strip outboard, which is at risk for splitting and damage. I don't think a small strip is needed if I put a traditional by-the-manual floorboard in (without the accent board). Not a big deal but will require some carpentry to fix. It's probably one of the reasons Solitude has a large plank outboard.

Once it's all finally dry fit, I'll sand every shiny spot in the hull, open up the limber holes, and start painting. That's going to feel really, really good.

Another set of things that make me happy are new electronics. I'll have a pretty good set of lights (prior posts allude to all the LEDs I've acquired). As for more practical things, a radio and speakers are, of course, a must. Two 10v solar panels with a controller will help trickle charge the battery. I've also got a half dozen or so 12v chargers with either USB or straight up connections to put throughout the boat, especially back to the cockpit. But one of my favorite things is my new VHF radio. I didn't want a handheld one (though I'll probably get one anyway for a backup). Since I plan to be out in coastal waters and Lake Superior, I need the range. It's got MMSI/DSC capability, built in GPS, and other fancy stuff. Yes, I splurged a bit on this, but it's awesome. I added a RAM3 to extend to the cockpit, too.

Electronica - first time the full circuit got hooked up. Testing the new radio and speakers with the battery, solar panel, and controller. To my amazement, it all worked.

The trouble is, even though it's one of the more compact models, it adds quite a bit of space. That means the electrical panel to house these things might be tricky. I spent a little bit of time cutting out the diorama for fitting. The final board came out to be 8.5" x 23" including 1/2" on all sides for trim and another 1/4" offset. In other words, big.

Potential layout of the electrical panel.

The panel is about 22 inches wide. It might be the largest panel in any PocketShip. I'm not saying that's a good thing.

Other quick work was getting the lower breasthook installed. This took some extra clamping power, courtesy of my neighbor's Bessey clamps. Once epoxy'd back into place, I screwed it firm, mixed up some thickened epoxy to fill in the gaps, sanded it down again, and now consider it done. Came out pretty nice -- a test fit of the bow confirmed it. I can't find the pictures but when I do I'll post them. It's nice to get pieces off the shelf and onto the boat.