Mixed progress

The only thing holding me back from sailing last season was a lack of deck hardware. So Saturday I was all geared up for deck work. After opening up the boat and getting some much needed ventilation, I realized I had left my power cord at home so I went back for it. At the house I looked up to see dark clouds. Halfway back to the boat the heavens opened up and dropped an ocean of water everywhere.

So all I managed to do Saturday was to get the insides all wet...

Sunday didn't look much better but I decided to dodge raindrops and get some work done where I could. I started by laying up the jib sheet tracks. I laid the four foot tracks equi-distant to the stanchion bases and far enough from the toerail to make it look 'right'. Then I drilled and filled the holes with thickened epoxy. I took a series of pictures of the operation in case someone doesn't know what I am talking about. Unfortunately, the white deck and bright sun washed out the photos beyond any form of recognition. I have a fancy camera but sometimes I forget to pay attention to what it is trying to tell me. Next week I will drill through the new epoxy for the actual mounting hardware. In the middle of this I had to button up and wait out a rain shower.



After the rain shower things cleared up considerably so I continued with the stern rail. The holes for the forward posts were the original ones but I had to make new holes for the aft posts. And yes, I will spend some time cleaning up the original pulpits before being permanently mounted.





With the weather continuing to hold I went ahead and set up the bow pulpit. Those holes I didn't have to drill and fill as they were the original ones. Next time I would have filled the holes before re-doing the decks and made new holes when I was ready for them. The pulpit has to be tortured a bit to get it into position using the original holes.



By this time the high heat and humidity were cooking me to something past well done. I spent a few more minutes and drilled and filled holes for my bronze cowl that I got off of Ebay last fall.





The heavy rain on Saturday that came in several hours early really upset my schedule. At least Sunday was partially salvagable.

Next week I need to cut out the backing plates for the rails (new bandsaw blade just for this is on order) drill out the holes and measure for the correct length hardware. And then I can finish mounting everything and have a working sailboat again for the first time in four years!

Then I need to finish everything else...