A series of small steps: June Gloom in July = Perfect Boat Building Weather

Since Seattle has come to San Diego (it's been gray for the last six weeks) and Seattle is known for it's wooden boat building communities, I thought I'd just keep knocking away at the this project.

I have to address a couple things right now- yes, I do have a good amount of time on my hands. And, no- you don't work on the thing all day long. I've learned that building a boat (in the stitch-and-glue method I'm using) is a series of small steps. You sand something, fit it, mix up a batch of epoxy and clamp it down. Next, you go get in a surf or mow the lawn, walk the dog or eat a sandwich. If the epoxy has gone off nicely you bust out the sander, fair something and then, if it's not to cold or dark, you can set up the next epoxy glue-up. It's not a marathon session of all day, hard core, boat building... just a series of small steps. Here's a couple more of those steps for you to check out:

Today's the day to fit the permanent breasthook. The breasthook give the bow structural support and the grain of the breasthook run from one side of the boat to the other (gunwale to gunwale). Here, I'm sanding the pointed end a bit round to fit into the fillet of the bow.

Here it is, looking pretty good.

I couldn't get the breasthook to fit perfectly into the bow- so I filled the gap with epoxy thickened with wood flour. Here it is setting up.

A couple hours later (mowed the lawn and grabbed a quick paddle) and I've sanded it down- it looks okay, doesn't it?

Painted out with a nice saturation coat of clear epoxy- the grain pops out and everything looks sweet. Except for the stray hair of the ultra cheap brush I bought at Home Depot... you get what you pay for.

Daydreaming about the sun...