Monday, February 5, 2007

Progress, now with pictures

Not much work left to do on Sunday, so we had a lazy day in front of the fire. That's nice when it's very cold, and Winnipeg has been VERY cold lately. I think we might have hit -40° last night.

Anyway, we finished epoxying the bulwark reinforcements (earflaps) to the frames - the first picture shows an assortment of frames (they're propped up all over the shop) clamped and curing.

We also finished shaping the transom knee - this supports the angle between the keel (well, the hog, but it's all part of the keel structure) and the transom. It's another very "boaty" piece of wood, lovely curves as you can see. The long straight edge is about 10.5", and it's nearly 2" thick, so it should be very strong.

Finally, we re-scarfed the stringer that broke the day before. There's a bit more shaping to do with the stringers, and we need to clean up the laminated stem, but basically we're ready to start sealing. The frames, hog, CP case, apron, transom, and stringers will get three coats of epoxy sealer (on the surfaces we're finished working, anyway).

Then we'll cut cedar strips for hull planking, assemble the construction frame, and put the pieces together. That's when it starts looking like a boat - we're very excited to have that huge step this close!

P.S. Can you tell I took these pictures with my camera, not my phone? Vast improvement. - C.