Hurry up and wait

After all that progress last month my current pace is abyssmal. Nothing has happened this week.

A friend of mine is trying to get his boat ready to head south to the Bahamas and I have been helping him. I want to work on my own boat but I just can't resist the tears of a grown man. I had to help. He is gone next week and progress should resume.

I think my weather window is closing so top priority is to enclose the boat for the winter. I need to do something a bit different this year to protect my new paint. No more wrapping the tarps tightly around the hull.

I have been working on writing up the work on my decks for the 'real' website. There is a lot to say and lots of pictures to edit so it is going slow. Its coming though.

Hang in there.

New pictures

Just a couple of pictures of Jenny home from the paint shop. In the direct sun, the hull color was definitely showing some purple but the contrast was too great, apparently, and the camera really didn't pick up on it.










Today, I installed the bungs in the toerails. It was rather cold for varnish and at a friend's suggestion I used shellac to secure the bungs. Shellac, being alcohol based, isn't affected by temperature like varnish. I am assured the old time boat people would frequently use shellac for bungs as well as other sealing functions. I'll say something if it doesn't work out.

A moment of reflection

I haven't seen the boat since it was dropped off on Tuesday. I have cleared my weekend schedule though and the boat is the only thing on it.

I thought I would post a before and after photo of the hull just to remember how far it has come.






Not bad, if I do say so myself :-)

I found teak bungs for $11.99 a hundred so I ordered 2 bags and will put bungs in the toerails. Then, a couple of sealer coats of varnish to protect the toerails and rubrails.

Then, its time to think about a winter cover... :-(

P.S.

I have just noticed that Google Blogger has started dropping my earliest posts. Another reason to move away from Google and onto my own website I guess.

Tentatively Tuesday

The boat might be coming home Tuesday, weather dependent.

In the meantime I need to get some materials together for some minor jobs.

I have been asked off-blog about the toerail ends and I want to make clear that the 'ends' are not finished. I just cut them off flush with the transom because having 3 feet hanging off the back looked rediculous. The final shape at fore and aft are as yet 'to be determined'. To be sure though, they won't look as they do now when it comes around to launching season.

Time to rest

Time to rest and explore other interests.

To be honest I don't really mind having the boat several hours away. It gives me an excuse NOT to work on it all the time. Or at least it relieves me of my guilt.

With a mind free of my boat's needs, I have been allowed to pursue other interests. One of those interests is website creation. So now I have a website, about my boat naturally, that I think is ready for public viewing.

I am pleased to announce the launch of http://www.triton680.com

While I intend to continue this blog, I think a real website is a better place to keep track of the project. Try searching for past work on this blog and you will see what I mean. I intend to update the new website as the rebuilding process continues and when that process is 'done' (Hah!) I will leave the site as a static description of the work done. I don't intend to document my sailing activities or other such stuff. This blog is good for things like that. I really don't find that stuff very interesting to read anyway.

The website isn't complete by far. That is months and years away. There are still some big gaps in the project descriptions but hopefully there is enough to keep someone's attention for a few minutes. I have tried to dig up information that people might not already know about boat. I am not sure if I have really succeeded with that. Oh well, I tried.

Anyway, there it is. http://www.triton680.com has gone public.

Home from 'Boat Camp'

It has been a busy few weeks.

I have been living boats for the past month. I worked on boats, I sailed on boats, I talked about boats. There was indoor, weather-free storage, no distractions, big changes. My head is spinning as I try to grasp all that has happened in the past month.

"It all happens right at the end". I was told this at some point and now I understand. All those months and months of grinding, sanding, and priming and in a few days it suddenly goes from a project to a boat.

I have a ton of pictures but there is already a bunch on the website I posted earlier. Here is just one to show how the deck looks now. In between projects I was able to get some of the deck hardware back on and the companionway trim.



So this month...

The deck was re-primed.
The deck was painted.
The deck non-skid was painted.
The hull was painted.
The toerail was fabricated and installed.
The rubrail was fabricated and installed.

Not too bad.

The toerail design is one I shamelessly copied from Nathan Sanborn's Triton. www.dasein668.com I had a chance to meet Nathan and see his new toerail just days after he installed it. From the moment I saw it I vowed I would have the same. Its a great design; high enough to feel very secure and be of real safety value, and not so big as to look clunky or out of place on a plastic classic. Combined with the rubrail it is a great look.

As a final touch, I saw some metallic flaked tape on Bolero, a modified Shields that was in the shop waiting to go home. The Shields is quite a work of art and you can read more about it at www.knockaboutsloops.blogspot.com/

Anyway, the gold flaked taped looked great so I decided to copy it with some silver flaked tape.



I am just too overloaded from the busy month to sort it out and write coherently.

As a final note, the website is almost ready. I just need some real content to make it interesting. Maybe next week...

Now I have to rest and savor the experience.