September, 2007

Things are starting to come together now. Jack is installing the toe rail/rub rail around the outside edge of the boat. I am installing the coaming on the inside edge of the deck. Don Severy is making the bow and tow stern cleats. Paula and John are doing all the prep for and applying the prime coat on almost everything.

Thanks to Marie for taking pictures. My new camera is on its way.

Friday, with the help of our volunteers, we applied the Dynel cloth to the deck. The Dynel is glued down with epoxy in the same way as the fiberglass cloth of the bottom of the boat. Jack and I had fastened the ¾” plywood decking to the faired deck beams the day before. The plywood, donated to us by Mid-Cape Home Centers, is fastened down with 2” # 12 bronze screws. The Dynel cloth, a kind of tightly woven fiberglass fabric, will mimic a canvas-covered deck.

All in all, the deck structure including the 2” x 3” deck beams, spaced sixteen inches apart and the ¾” plywood covered with dynel should be a nearly indestructible work platform.

We are closing in on completing this project. I have been talking with “the Boat Guy” Andy, who will install the new outboard and it’s associated steering and electronics. As has been mentioned before, Honda Motor Corporation is donating the fifty horsepower outboard. We are all excited to have this new, clean burning, efficient, electrically started motor to replace our old, tired outboard.

We have a week and a half until the boat will go to his shop. Then it will be back at our shop to finish up the painting and last minute details before launching.

We continue to make great progress on the Garvey. Today we finished installing the deck structure, that is, deck beams, stud beams and carlins. Before we put the plywood deck on we primed the inside of the boat. From the picture you can see why we all have bad backs. There is a lot of bending over to reach inside the boat.

We are fortunate to have the help of George Greenamyer and Don Severy, both volunteers, to help with the painting. There is a lot of surface area to cover.

The next step, hopefully tomorrow, will be to fair the deck beams and lay down the plywood in preparation for putting the dynel cloth on the deck on Friday. Dynel is a kind of fiberglass cloth that when finished will look like a canvas deck but is much more wear resistant.

By the way, Linda, we hope you are feeling better and can rejoin us soon. We’re saving you a seat on the boat for launch day!

We are keeping on track with the schedule for completion. Last Friday featured a lot of clean up inside the boat. During the phase where the bottom of the boat was fastened down a lot of 5200 oozed out around the edges of the frames, chines and keel. The same thing that makes it such a good product as an adhesive also makes it tough stuff to clean up.

Clean up required all hands. We used sharp utility knives, chisels, scrapers, and putty knives to slice out the cured 5200. A word to the wise, remove the excess stuff while it’s wet. The cured adhesive does not like to let go.

The point of the clean-up is to prep the inside bottom to receive a coat of epoxy. This, we hope, will seal the plywood and help the boat last a bit longer.

Also, A volunteer Dave, continued to work on the center console. This is the top that he glued up out of four pieces of Wanna. (cut off pieces from the stock we used in replanking the stern castle of Mayflower II).

Someone came in the shop yesterday and reminded us that the date was the 17^th. This means, they went on to say, we only have a month to finish the boat. Only a month? How about: We have to all of a month until we can use our new boat.

Speaking of Mayflower II, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention John and Paula’s continue efforts to keep at least the rigging in good shape while Jack and I work on the Garvey. They have retarred all the standing rigging in the last few weeks. It is all shiny and new looking again and ready for the fall and winter seasons.