Not sanding

Okay, the title is a bit of a misnomer. It's not that I'm not sanding, I just didn't sand exclusively today. For the first time in about 3 weeks, I had tasks other than fairing. Let me tell you, what a nice change of pace.... Above you can see the current state of our subject in all her post-deadline glory.

On an aside, one of my frequent readers has renamed it a "liveline" instead of a deadline. I thought that was a very good way to put it!

Well I laid on another batch of quickfair from System 3, and needed it to harden up, so I started pecking away at other tasks. I also had a lift that wasn't going according to plan (non-square pads right at the transom) so I needed to remove some humps and bumps to get it right.

Under the boat with the drill we went:



I used a piece of scrap with a hole centered at 3" and bored for a pencil. Marked out all the interior lines per plans, then drilled holes adjacent to them on the inside. These holes were then connected with a straightedge and re-measured for squareness on the outside of the hull.

Transom curves marked out:



Same goes for the bottom (excellent no-look photography):



And now, ladies and gentlemen, the scariest cut I have made on the boat to date:



That one will give you an ulcer, Doug.

Onward with the tools, I used the circular saw to hack the straight lines, and used the jigsaw VERY SLOWLY to cut the curves. These are by far the smoothest curves I've ever cut:



Then finish out the cut to near the transom, which is to be finished with a handsaw:



This is a particularly good time to see just how good your craftsmanship is. All of your construction transgressions become very apparent when you cut directly through the joints you made many moons ago. Unfortunately my camera was of the opinion that the towels in the background made a better focusing topic, but you do still get a good view. Note the plywood joint, the fillet, the glass layers, the rounding of the ply to accept the glass on the outside, the filler making the edge for the transom, and filling the atrocious hack job of a stern section I made:



After these festivities (and lunch) I finished out that lift where the plywood had dipped. Its the lovely quickfair brown. Unfortunately our weather went from 90 and sunny to 58 and rain, so the quickfair didn't harden up in the 2 hrs advertised. I will let it set until I get back from work:



So the day was winding down, nothing was curing to sand, so I took up another of the need-to-do projects, the rubrails. Jacques reccomends using 6mm ply laminated in 3 layers, so I started the process. I have a bevy of clamps on loan from a friend, but as in all boatbuilding, I don't have anywhere near as many as I need to do both sides, so I just got one side glued up tonight:



There you have it folks, actual visible progress! You have no idea how nice it is to see something change unless you have been mired in fairing for too long. The rubrails will continue to be laid up one layer at a time for the next week or so, the last of the sanding comes thurs and fri, which leaves us primer mon-tues and paint thurs-fri. Lets hope for good weather!

E