National Trogolodyte Day

Today centered around A) procrastinating because I didn't want to B) crawl into a hatch with a grinder and scarf out the patches I needed to put in. But once I finally finished up with A, I put on all my protective gear--respirator, safety glasses, earphones, condom--put the shop-vac hose in the hatch and turned it on, and crawled in. It wasn't really all that bad. But it is always an adventure, like rebuilding an old house. You never know what you'll find. And once you find it, you wonder just how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. 

In this case, the original builder never seemed troubled by the fact that his carpentry was not that close--in places the side falls about an inch short of the floor, and the gap is just filled with epoxy. And some of the wood he used is, um, a little odd. But we do the best we can to make the new pieces as good or better than the old, and acknowledge that we are not replacing the entire boat--just the damaged parts. 

Here is the view from inside the hatch as the right-side chine patch is going in. The left side of the hole in the boat is bordered with two different pieces of strange plywood. The right half is bordered with a newer marine plywood--likely a patch from the Tombigamy's exciting past.

Look at that--the left side of the boat has a piece of new plywood in just about the same spot. Symmetrical crashes. Alan is peering in from the outside world to make sure I am still breathing.

And by nightfall the bottom of the boat is fully patched, awaiting another grinding down and graphite-tinged flow coat. Thus ends the structural repair work on the Tombigamy. Now a day or two of details and tidying and she's out the door.