2948Hrs – Almost Joinery …….Almost
Another great day of Summer boatbuilding today, I don’t want to go on about it but wow, this July could turn out to be a record breaker.
Anyway once again I took advantage and was not only able to get the first ‘sighter’ coat of primer on the deckpod cabin but also an application of filler over the glass joints. To be honest I’m not going to take too much time on the deckpod finish, it’ll be a bit rough and ready to start with but time is of the essence and I can fanny around with it later down the road.
Once that was done I turned my attention back to the aft part of the deckpod. I sanded and routed the rear edge, glued another support batten under the forward edge, and finally cut and fitted a fairly substantial strengthening support in the centre. As I said the other day I want this area to be strong enough to take sail handling fittings if necessary so I wasn’t going to cut corners. I’m thinking of building some ‘cubby holes’ into this aft section of the pod. I think it’ll be useful to keep stuff like binoculars, hand-bearing compass, fog horn, searchlight etc. close at hand. No rush on this though as once again it’s something I can add later easily enough.
Having worked on the forward and aft sides of the deckpod I thought I’d finish off by working on the sides. This turned out to be the longest and trickiest part of the day as I made up the hardwood coamings that finish of the raw plywood side edges.
Once again I re-purposed some mahogany from old horse arena surround cappings so it took some time just cutting down the rough, curved cappings into clean usable pieces of the right size. Next job was to cut a 10mm groove in the undersides so that they slotted neatly onto the plywood and then came the brain testing job of cutting all the mitre joints to get a nice finish. It was a challenge but I’m pleased with the results. By the time they are glued together, sanded and oiled I think they’ll look great, and once again I have the added satisfaction of having turned ‘scrap’ wood into a nice feature of my boat.
