Growing new guts

I've been running around a lot this week and Betty Boop has not been getting my full attention. She is, however, slowly growing new innards. I keep awaiting a sponsorship from either DeWalt, or my clamp guys, Highland Woodworking. They sure get a lot of product placement on fretwaterlines.

The shop and the Boop are redolent with Port Orford cedar and mahogany. Yum. There is finally enough interior structure that I think I can roll her eventually and pull off the floor without her falling to pieces. That's good because I finally fell through the floor last night.

Although I am reproducing the eccentric decks of the old Boop, I must confess I am building her guts with about half as much lumber as the old craft. There was a lot of redundancy in her, due mostly to the fact that Hayes and Testerman, the previous owners, hadn't been down this road before. It takes a lot of chin-rubbing and a little bit of swearing to whittle the structure down to essentials, but I think future owners and repairers will be grateful.

I salvaged a couple pounds of brass screws from the deconstruction, many of which are returning to the Boop.

A test placement of a potential transom design. Boop Oop a Doop.