A very busy boy.

So since the first deadline passed, another came up. Useably floating by the time my parents get here on the 9th. Take them out for a cruise in the unfinished, but structurally complete boat. Lets see how the progress is!

We left off with the tank install, so naturally the next thing to do is get the consoles cut out and prepped for install. The gaps for the plumbing for the tank and the forthcoming controls needed to be ironed out asap.

Here are the consoles cut out and propped into place:



I made small locators out of doug fir that I had laying around, cut to the appropriate length, then screwed to the loose panel. Here is another handly little tidbit for the loyal readers. Sometimes you need the part to stay right where you tell it to, immediately. This is where you go in the house, dig into SWMBO's stuff, and steal her hot glue gun (or if your lucky, she has two, as in my case).



Very convenient and has plenty of holding power.

Here are the two consoles, with the fillets in place, and some woven tape laid down on the joints. My hands weren't sticky, so I took a photo:



Following those getting glassed, I finalled the tank install, with a tidy little wire job, then ran them through the bulkhead:



All is ready for the next big project, adding the bow seats. Previously we saw the cleats glued to the hull sides. This was a drop in install with butt blocks just like the sole:



A gracious Shayne stopped by one morning after work, for a trade. In exchange for taking his daughter Madison out on the lake, who was an astonishingly quick-to-learn rower, he helped me hang the motor which just returned from the local dealer. It took a rope and pulley system, along with some brute strength, to get it in the right spot.



After hanging the motor, it appears as though I may have to add some elevation to the top of the transom. I am having my cavitation plate appear to be 2" below the bottom of the boat. Thats a little too much drag. Still have to check the particulars on it, trim angles, etc, but thats how it looks now.

Next up, the decks needed to be added. The boat stiffened up some with the rubrails, considerably more with the gunnel cleat, and absolutely became bulletproof with the addition of the decks.

Bow deck being glued up:



First off, I need to once again apologize to anyone driving through the neighborhood, on the lake, or neighbors within earshot. I tried to figure out every word that either ended in K, made reference to a part of the body, or in some way called attention to a bodily function or blaspheming.

While gluing up the bow deck, the section at the very point came into question. The butt block was 1/4" too wide. AAHHH!~ Soaked in glue, I had to remove it, cut it, reattach it, then commit to swaring, throwing tools, and breaking things. Nothing went well, and the bow looks like it. Thank you filler, thank you. You will make it all go away.....

This little tyraid was chased the next day by putting the side decks on. I am running extremely low on filler, and low on epoxy as well. so its going slowly. I have small amounts of glue laying things up, plenty strong enough, but the fillets need filling.

The decks, from the position of the F frame:



So now its like 95 degrees in the garage, the wife comes home, the neighbors want to go out on the lake in their boat. I think I have about 15 minutes. There has to be some project I can squeeze in...



Footwell it is! With feet to test it. This seating area is surprisingly comfortable, and I think it'll get more use than most anywhere else.

Then, after the tour and taking the neighbor kids wakeboarding, then another set of neighbors wanted to go on a fireworks cruise at dark, I came back out to close up the garage. Which led me to taking off the clamps, then removing all the screws I had used as clamps. Then SWMBO came out, so I called it a night, shot a couple more photos, and passed out.





Bed by midnight. Oh, did I mention I work for the Fire Dept, and am working today (the 4th of July, and no I don't get overtime) on the hottest day of the year so far? Should be interesting...........

E