Finally!
It has been a long winter with almost no progress. Today, the tarps were rolled back, a little spring cleaning was done, and of course I fired up the sander to remove the remains of last year's botched deck primer coat.
I am not sure yet but I think there is a change of plans in the works. Over the past six months my monthly expenses have risen about $700 a month. Add to that the increased heating bills. Add to that I was just laid off and while unemployment checks are on their way, they will be something less than I am used to. In short, money is tight.
I have mentioned that mooring options are limited. The best I can do seems to be Salem at around $1500 a season. My current thought is to NOT launch the boat as planned, pay the $600 summer storage fee and save the $1500+ mooring costs, use the time and money saved to get some panels in the interior and continue moving the whole project forward. It depresses me a bit to say this but a money shortage is my reality. Never underestimate the cost in time and cash that goes into one of these projects. Unless you have to, I strongly urge people to buy the best boat they can, take a loan even, but in the long run you are sailing quicker and on a nice boat.
In my case I love the building process and I want a boat built to my personal specs. I love the planning part. I like working out all the details and understanding the whole process and compromises necessary. I feel like I have a very deep knowledge about my boat, how it is built, why it is built that way, and what is really possible. I look forward to having a very unique Triton. I wouldn't mind hurrying up the whole project though. It is wearing me out.
I have been looking at brown splotches on my cabin liner for a while now- the results of filling in all the old holes. The picture above is from the former hole where a couple of instruments were mounted. The instruments are gone.
I sanded down all the filler and I even got into the little corners and crevices that had years of black... stuff - maybe solidified mold? - stuck to the surface. This was all on the underside and not visible but I sanded everything down all the same. Later, I will prime and paint and having a smooth, clean, fresh surface is going to be very nice after all these years of stains and gouges.
Looking up at the old hole where the original ice box used to be. I am posting the photo just to say, "Good enough". Sometimes you just have to say it. I could fuss with this for a while but it is on the underside and out of site. On the odd chance you saw it it wouldn't look too awfully bad but it is clearly not a 'finished' look. Good enough, it is just tying the edges of the hole in the liner anyway, the deck is still there.
Just a shot of the fine workmanship at the Pearson factory in the 1960's. These old boats are full of stuff like this. The Triton was the volkswagen of the boat world - cheap and practical- the fact that they turned out better than expected is just a feather in the Pearson cap. No disrespect to the Pearson's either. They did a lot with the tight budget constraints there were under.
Another Pearson beauty. The 'frame' is cracked and someone at the factory decided to repair it with some scrap lying around (the same stuff as the bulkheads -plywood with fake wood veneer). I just put this in for no good reason. I am actually going to make panels across those openings, partially sealing the cockpit undersides from the cabin. In part it is because I am not going to insulate back there and I want to keep the cabin warm air isolated, another part is to try to limit stray smells by directing all the air flow through a smaller area around the engine where the blower will hopefully keep it under control. My last boat was all open and a spilled container of lamp oil made sleeping in the cabin nearly impossible. I am not really sure it will help but it can't hurt.
With no job to get in the way and plenty of shop materials due to my purchasing in bulk, I should be able to post more regularly from now on.
I have to run but I want to also mention that I just picked up my new standing rigging and roller furler yesterday. I will post more pictures soon.
Keep the dirty side down :-)
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