Bits and pieces

Ackk. My least favorite part of boatbuilding: sanding fiberglass. Yuck yuck yuck, and not the chortling kind of yuck.

But we're getting there. All the horizontal planes are now relatively impervious to assaults from moisture.

Time to make some hardware. The casting sand has had most of the oil burned out of it, so we add another couple quarts of old motor oil.

Cricket gets to chop up a few dozen old bent oarlocks.

Old oarlocks make strange green flames when they are taken up to a couple thousand degrees. And a very strange precipitate around the foundry blow-hole.

We need about sixty star-shaped finish washers to fasten the gunwales on. That's about six pours.

Magic!

But that's just the beginning. Each washer needs to be drilled, ground smooth, then polished.

Sometimes we get a little smudgey.

Meanwhile I get to do the hair-raising move of determining and cutting the final sheer line. When you get it right it looks normal. When you screw up by a few fractions of an inch it looks dreadful.

But I think we got it right. Late last night I painted the area behind the gunwales with Tequila Beach, my favorite deck paint.

And stoked up the fire. And hoisted the boat to the ceiling where the warm air hangs out.