The last 2 days up North I gave the sheerstrake three layers of PU varnish. I will not post a photo of the finished sheerstrake because it doesn't differ much from all the previous pictures of the sheerstrake.
Between the layers there was 21 hours to do other things like eating, sleeping, gardening and visiting my regular supplier "De Bootbouwer" www.bootbouwer.nl .
This chandlery is interestingly enough situated in farming country, quite a distance from serious water.
I went there to buy a pair of oars. My initial plan was to build the oars myself but the price of these Finnish built oars was competitive enough to change my mind.
There was only one problem, the diameter of the oars is 45 mm while the folding rowlocks I bought a few months ago can accept a max of 40 mm.
Luckily I had bought these folding rowlocks also at De Bootbouwer so I could trade them for a set of "crutches" and sockets. I also acquired a tufnol sheave for the halyard.
Finally I bought some length of half-round strip to protect keel.
Still to buy is the rudder gear. I investigated a few possiblitie s but I am not sure yet what to buy.
That will be decided in a later stage.
Next time I can go up North I will paint the rest of the hull. Again three coats so at least 2 1/2 days. No shortcut possible.
The last weeks nothing much was done on the Peapod but completing the varnishing of the rudder, tiller and dagger board. Furthermore the daggerboard stop was finalized and epoxied.
At last I will go up North later today to start varnishing the outside of the hull.
My aim is to get three layers of clear varnish on the sheerstrake. As I have to drive back somewhere Thursday morning I will have to cut the curing time per layer from 24 hours to 21 hours. Hopefully that is within the margins of the process parameters.
I also plan to go to one of my suppliers up North for oars and rudder hardware.
Next blog entry planned for Thursday or Friday.
The last week I have been varnishing the tiller, rudder and daggerboard.
Bit difficult to see on the picture with all light coming through the windows of my workshop at our new home.
I first lightly sanded tiller and rudder and clamped them in my two bench vices.
The tiller could be clamped at the part that goes into the rudder so I could varnish the whole tiller in one process. The rudder I first clamped at the cheeks so I could varnish the rudder blade.
After that two layers of high-gloss PU and one layer of satin gloss PU were applied. Each layer with 24 hours of curing time.
Now I have clamped the rudder blade as to varnish the cheeks and I also clamped the daggerboard at the handle as to varnish the board itself.
The first layer of high-gloss is now on so two more days to finish rudder and thereafter three days to finalize the grip of the daggerboard.
After finishing the rudder I will also start with the daggerboard cap that I made.
Finalizing a boat can be a long term process. I still have to find time to go up North to start varnishing and paint the outside of the hull. My objective is still to row the Peapod before the end of the season. That implies a total bulding time of one year. Longer than anticipated, but moving house twice and partly building on two locations did not help.
The mast, boom and gaff will be done this winter and in december I will go to a sailmaking course at the Bootbouwschool to make my own sail.
Two days in ourt cottage up North. The garden needed quite some attention.
Luckily I was able to lightly sand (240 grit) the seats and coated the seats with two layers of high-gloss PU varnish.
There was not sufficient (process) time left to add the final coat of satin PU varnish.
Despite that we turned the hull. Now I can go up North and sand, varnish and paint the outside of the hull without any help. That last layer on the seats can be done in a later stage.
In between varnishing and mowing the lawn I made a dagger board case stopper out of scrap material.
It is a piece of red cedar for the dagger and mahogany as lid. Sculted and glued together. Now some more sanding and thereafter the well known epoxy + PU treatment. Also have to add a knob of some kind to get it out.
