From yesterday, here's a picture of the fairing on the spray rails at the bow.
So today was spent spending the gift cards I got yesterday for Christmas. But not only did I go to Home Depot, I also bought the first hardware for the boat, namely deck cleats and a pad eye at Western Auto.
When I got to the shed, the first order of business was to clear the snow that had fallen today. This is the first snow we've had in two plus months for which I've been grateful as it reduces the stress level.
After unpacking my purchases I installed the pad eye near the bottom of the rope locker. The end of the anchor rope is attached here; it's the last chance to keep from losing your anchor and rope when things go wrong.
Next up was installing the forward tie rope support. This is two holes in the bow, connected by pipe, wrapping around the bowstem. This is used instead of an eyebolt that would go into or through the bow stem and is much stronger as there's nothing to pull out. To drill and align the holes requires building a jig to both line up the holes and to support the hole saw as I was drilling at an angle into the hole. This was pretty stressful; screw this up and while it's not irrepairable, it would a a huge DDD!
Now Renn calls for building this contraption I'm about to install out of 1 1/4" copper pipe, but when I went to buy that pipe today I about choked. $45 for five feet! I needed less than one foot, so plan B. I bought some 1 1/4" PVC and two elbows. After some careful measuring and cutting I had it built. To help lock it in place I glued it to the inside with 3M 4200.
As you can see, I got ahead of myself with the painting so I sanded off the paint, applied a thick layer of peanut butter to the top and bottom gaps, and then covered the whole thing with three layers of 7oz glass.
I'll repaint the entire thing tomorrow to make it beautiful. :-) On the front side of the hull I made another batch of very smooth peanut butter and using a syringe I forced it in around the PVC. In a couple days I'll take a sander to the whole thing to level it out with the hull.
There were two other holes to drill. These are drains for the rope locker. The holes are drilled at a downward and rearward angle to facilitate drainage and to help keep water from being forced up and into the rope locker.
After drilling these holes I taped them over on the outside and then filled them with epoxy. After about 30 minutes I pulled the tape and cleaned up the epoxy that hadn't been soaked into the wood.
Since I had the 3M 4200 open I finished installing the deck plate in the flotation tank by putting a bead around the bottom and then screwing it in place.
The next thing to be worked on today was the forward deck. I drilled a two inch hole for a hawse pipe (the hole in the hull or the deck through which the anchor rope or chain passes) and two holes for the deck cleat that will hold the anchor in place. I taped off the holes on the bottom side of the deck, filled the two small ones and painted the inside of the large one with epoxy. A layer of 7oz fiberglass was then laid down.
You can just see the two holes for the deck cleat to the up and left of the hawse hole.
Last was the pipe for the hole. I thought a lot about this and I decided to go with a two inch pipe. Even though the rope will only be 7/16" in diameter I wanted to make sure the hole was large enough for it to smoothly feed in and out without being a potential problem if the cap comes off in heavy seas. I also could have gone with something commercial, but I like my idea better (for the moment ;).
A pipe cap was drilled for a screw to attach a porcelain knob to with a small amount of 4200 for good measure.
A piece of two inch pipe was cut and then 1/2" holes were carefully drilled in the pipe and the cap and then cuts were made to the edges. With the rope in the slot and the cap in place there's a minimum of space for water to enter, but the cap can be loosened to allow for air circulation.
The pipe will be cut to length and set in place with 4200 tomorrow. The inside of the rope locker will be properly painted (for the last time) and then the upper deck will be installed and I'll start work on the shelves. These must be finished next before I can start work on the bulkheads and cuddy and cabin.
I'm still waiting on my fiberglass and epoxy shipments. I need these to finish the side-to-chine, hull-to-stringer and transom joints.
8 Hours