Spring showers...

Well, calling them spring may be a bit premature and calling them showers would be gross understatement. Late winter rain deluge is probably a more accurate description. We are under a flood watch and expect 5 inches of rain in the next 24 hours. Not much if you are from Ketchikan but around here that guarantees a lot of mud and swimming pool cellars.

My camera battery died so no pictures this week. You will have to trust me when I say I accomplished some work on Jenny.

Basically, I prepped and started the painting process on the bamboo and pine shelving I cut last week.

The 'plyboo' bamboo plywood was sanded to a nice finish and then oiled. I debated leaving the bamboo bare before applying a clear urethane finish but the bamboo, when laid up alongside some varnished cherry, looked too white/bright and contrasty. A coat of oil, which I was going to use on the underside in any case as a preservative, gave the bamboo a light yellow-ish tone that matched the cherry much better. I wanted to let the oil dry completely before any other coating so that was it for the bamboo this weekend.

The pine shelving I wanted to keep as light colored as possible so I just routed the front lip with a half inch quarter round bit, sanded smooth, and applied a clear satin poly-urethane. I managed two coats on the underside and a single coat on the visible side.

Other than that, I decided to go through my lumber rack and re-organize it. I save too much. Now I have a pickup truck load of scrap plywood pieces, 2x4 offcuts and odd fixtures for structures that don't exist anymore. I also have all the original teak trimmings that came out of the boat stored in an organized way so I can find them when I need them. Those are too valuable to simply toss away (given my current budget anyway).

Next week is the Maine boatbuilders show. One of the best boat oriented shows that I know of. At least for me since they display a lot of materials suppliers and small boats that I can actually think of building or buying someday, unlike the ugly glossy $800k two piece molded fiberglass behemoths at the big boat shows. I should still manage to get more coats of urethane in place and maybe I will find some special boat show prices on the veneered plywood I need to really bring Jenny's interior alive.

Stay dry everyone!