Forewarned but not forgotten

Every blog and manual about building this boat warns about the endless hours sanding. I've barely begun and I completely agree with that assessment. Though some of the 3 hours I spent today with some form of grit would've happened anyway, most of it was due to the terrible epoxy lamination from yesterday. I got so used to wearing my sanding outfit that when I tried to remove a bit of loose epoxy by blowing on it, I forgot I was still wearing my mask. It was a successful day, though, because I turned this:

Messy messiness. These are literally as hard as concrete.

into this:

Smooth as butter.

while wearing this:

Insert Bane joke here.

I used as rasp, followed by 40 grit on the belt sander, then 120 on the random orbital. After planing, I'll sand it up to 220 in preparation for 2 epoxy layers then varnish. This is going to get beat up pretty good so preparing it now will save time later. I definitely don't want to rest on my laurels/belabor the point/take a double bow but I'm really, really happy with the way the boom gallows came out. I got all the epoxy crap off, reigniting the orangey tone of the padauk, and I would've cut it to spec but there's no room in the shop. That's because I finally, finally got through the keel blocking exercise and it's all curing as I write this.

It came down to making a small bit of timber to connect the aft keel blocking to the centerboard trunk. This area will undergo fairly rigorous stress as this is just a few inches from the centerboard joint and will also bear the brunt of any scrapes along the ground, say against a reef. It's a severe joint that requires severe attention, which is why I spent a few days trying to figure it out. I lathered on a good quantity of thickened epoxy to secure this joint so it should stick.

Timber added to connect the keel blocking to the centerboard trunk.

Clamping it down. The right most clamp is dedicated to that bit of timber.

What's interesting, though, is that the CLC guys apparently had the same issue! I'm not sure if this was intentional, but after looking carefully at the photo in the manual for the hundredth time, it's clear that there's a bit of timber in this exact spot:

Aliens built this.

At first I thought it was artifact or a crop circle or some weird lighting trick but it's there in a photo a couple pages later. There's nothing in the manual or the plans or the pattern that suggests this has to be done. I'd call it an error at best in an otherwise other-worldly documentation. When I asked around about this, most people said they didn't use a pattern but measured the keel and then cut it. Why didn't they use the pattern? Because they couldn't find the pattern, because it isn't labeled in the manual. Unfortunately, I found my pattern and got stuck with the short stick. So, there you have it, my friends! You've been forewarned. If you do use the pattern, just extend the thicker part another 2 inches then cut it to size when you're sure it'll fit with the centerboard in place.

With the blocking set to cure, I went out to dinner with my wife and a few friends at a place called Sea Salt. It's an outdoor seafood cafe near Minnehaha Falls and one of the city's best places to eat on a summer day. Today, though, was not a summer day, and though we brave Minnesotans like to be outdoors, we also draw the line at 40 degrees.

Once dinner was over, I came back to the shop, peeled off the frog tape from the squeeze out, and laid down a layer of epoxy to both inside faces of the keel itself. This area will either be filled with lead or air so it doesn't matter much if this isn't the best epoxy work. I wanted to try to do a good job, anyway, as there will be much more visible areas down the line and this is the time to get the technique correct. One thing I'm finding is that I don't need to use as much epoxy as I was. It should 'soak' but shouldn't 'sit' .. meaning, if it pools after 'soaking', there's too much of it. The excess can be scraped off or maybe left a little proud so that the mating surfaces can pick it up, if there are any mating surfaces. I'm also always startled by how nice this plywood looks when wet. This is going to be one good looking boat.

Keen observers will note an error here. These are not the mirror-facing parts. I flipped the bottom one to do the blocking.

Though presented here a little out of order, the first thing I did today was plane down down the keel nose to spec. In fact, the small timber block described above was made from the scrap portion of the keel nose block! It was a little bit lucky that the widths were the same, else I'd have to laminate something up and I've decided I don't like laminating unless it's a cutting board or a boom gallows. Ask me in a week or so if I like my tiller.  The keel nose will be glued to the front of the keel in the next day or two.

Getting the keel nose block to spec. The cut away portion on top became the small bit of timber above!

Lastly, I did a test of the centerboard inside the centerboard trunk in anticipation of screwing down some plywood to cover the hole for the lead pour. The centerboard fits nicely except for the last few inches near the pivot hole. Turns out the centerboard itself is not flat but has a small arc of maybe 1/4" where the left side is slightly higher than the right. This won't be too much of an issue as the leading and trailing edges of the centerboard taper to a point, making the stickiness here moot. Still, it should lay flat so I maneuvered some stuff to make it so.

In the photo below, you can see the centerboard in the back of the shop with water applied to both sides, clamped to the router table, with a 10 lb weight on one edge to flatten it out. I'm not sure how it happened but this should fix the issue by the morning.

Epoxy coating

I'd call it a productive day. I should be ready for the pour by the end of the week. The weather, in turn, is expected to warm up over the next few days, which means clearing out the garage in preparation for the most boat-a-rific part of this build: stitching the hull.

PS: A moment to remember five Americans killed in Afghanistan this weekend. Among them, Anne Smedinghoff, a second-tour Foreign Service Officer on her way to deliver books to a Kabul school.