It's been a while!

Saw some great Oysterband shows in Alberta, and now Tara's gallivanting around the UK for a couple of months. That leaves me (Courtney) plenty of time to work on the boat.

Did some sanding on Wednesday night, and then Dad finished it up over the next few days. Today we put on the LAST few little patches of fairing compound (not much, as you can see, and it'll sand off very quickly). We also put the keel on (detail pic on the right, taken from the starboard bow).

Next order of business will be the stem and the bilge keels, and tidying the joint between the keel and the hull, not to mention the CP case slot. And THEN we'll be ready to paint and roll her over. Excitement!

Tired. No pix.

Quick update: glass job was basically really good, a bit of sag on the starboard bow but otherwise pretty clean. Tara, Courtney, and friend Mark were out on Sunday to sand and tidy the edges; it was good fun having Mark there and it's always nice to find someone else to paint the fence. Last night Courtney and Buster put on a strip of glass to reinforce the bow and a thin coat of fairing compound over the whole hull. The last coat... please, please, please, let it be the last coat, otherwise Courtney is afraid that he will wake up one morning and find his arms have said "Bugger this for a lark" and gone off to Rio for hols. And that would make it hard to play music.

But seriously, it's looking really good and we'll have a bit of an enforced break, 'cause next week is the long-awaited "chase Oysterband through western Canada road trip"!

Glassed, by Toutatis!

Dad and I got two applications of epoxy on, here's a picture of the port side. We'll leave it and do some sanding - maybe even some fairing - before we put on any more epoxy. It's looking good!

Glassing progress

I (Courtney) am out at Wavey Creek for the weekend, probably, due to a nasty storm. Just as well, there's lots of work to be done glassing this puppy.

Today Dad and I fit four swaths of 10 oz. fibreglass cloth. The inside layer on each side goes from the keel to a little above the waterline, then is covered by an outer layer from the keel to the sheer. Both sides are now pinned in place; we'll do the laminating epoxy tomorrow.

Here's a picture showing the glass on the starboard side (I actually took this shot before we did the port side). The arrows trace the line of the inner layer. It's still a little loose (and long) along the sheer; we'll trim it later. So far so good!

W00T!

Fairing is done. At looong last. For now. (We might do a bit of fine fairing between glassing, which takes place this weekend, and painting, which won't be for a while.)

Pictures, we have pictures! First the by-now-traditional portside view, showing the results of three or four rounds of filling and sanding. It looks patchy, I'll admit - but it feels smooooove. Like Smoove B., only smoover.

Here's a close-up with enhanced contrast. You can see how the multiple applications overlap or shrink into the centre of a big low spot. Those big low spots took some filling, but don't take my word for it; ask my triceps.

Finally, a shot from the stern, looking down on the boat. You can also see Buster aka Dad, laminating up the stem for an outboard planing boat he's building. This one is a step up in size from his Mud Cat, so he's calling it Channel Cat. Needless to say, it'll be in the water before our Shilling...

But I'm feeling pretty chuffed for the moment. The fairing was probably the hardest job, in terms of physical work, we'll face in this entire build... and it's done. Ish.

So, W00T!

OMG. Also, WTF and BBQ.

I hate fairing!

That is all.

Fairing continues

We're into the third round of fairing and I think this will be the last one barring some isolated low spots that might need one more fill-in. Things are looking good - we'll try to post some pictures before we glass, which should be the weekend after next.