More Fridays, More Progress - Topsides

We finally caught a break in the weather last Monday night, just enough for myself and two crazy buddies to stand out on my lawn at 2 in the morning to watch the eclipse. I'm sure houses up and down the block were wondering what the nutty neighbor was doing now. Most of them already think I'm crazy - I'm the one with a half-built sailboat in the garage, after all - but no cops came and no one shushed us as we ooh'd and ahh'd over the Blood Moon. I caught a few nice pictures of the event, too.

Blood Moon with Spica photobombing.

Alas, that was about all I had the energy and time to do until today. The last stitches to hold the topsides to the hull went in.  As expected, there was a fuss at the bow and certain areas here and there.

Slightly off at the bow area. This is the closest I could get it. From the front, it looks good. Epoxy to the rescue eventually. I'm not too concerned because the bowsprit runs through here.

For areas where I couldn't get things lined up quite right, I figured I'd use the techniques from the hull. This is where you drill a hole, put some blocking on the other side, and draw the two together. I couldn't get that to work because the relatively sharp angles kept breaking the wood, so I resorted to cannibalizing my table saw and co-opting the stainless steel clamps. This actually worked really well. In fact, it worked so well that if these ever go on sale for a few bucks, I'd recommend people go out and buy a dozen or so to use as stitch and glue clamps.

Cabin view of the clamp screw.

Hull view of the clamp screw. This allowed the joint to close perfectly.

Once the clamps secured the alignment, I mixed up some thickened epoxy and applied the tack welds. I learned from earlier that you don't need a lot of epoxy here, just enough to cover the joint and a little bit on each side. More importantly, you need to be sure you set an alarm or some other reminder to get in there with the gloved finger. It goes much easier when the tack welds are thin and out of the way for the proper fillet later.

Tack welds running along the cockpit decking. These will harden up a little bit and I'll finger them down.

I'm a little concerned that parts of the topsides 'bulge' out a little bit. For a fair curve, I'll have to grind it down. With epoxy (what else) and some paint, it'll be little noticed, but I don't want to slough off more wood than absolutely necessary. These are somewhat structural and will certainly take some abuse, so I'll have to figure out a balance.

I also picked up a couple clam thru-hulls. These will sit between the standard seat back support and the dashboard one. It's a nice set up. You drill a hole through the middle of the plastic, puck-like piece, then cut "outboard", insert the wires, and screw it all shut. The result is a waterproof, safe way to run wires from one area of a boat to another.

Cable Clam - sounds like something Godzilla would fight.

Sizing before topsides went on.

As mentioned elsewhere, I'll lose about 4" from the cockpit locker. I spent so much time prepping the laz area electronics for these there's no turning back now.

One downside to progress is that it's hard to get in and out of the boat now. My step stool is too low so unless I want to build a swing rope that hangs from the garage ceiling to get in there, I'll need to get a taller one.

The long planks on the bottom are the 16' select pine boards for the mast. I cleaned up a bit after this picture. It's embarrassing, really.