The Makeshift Armada Project: Days 4 and 5 and PICTURES!

Hello folks! Took a brief hiatus from boatbuilding last week and headed down to my family's beach house to catch some fish and crabs! We also took our pet rabbit Dapper with us. It was his first trip to the beach house, but after the first day or so, he made himself right at home. Wouldn't you agree?

Now to get back on subject. My love affair with boatbuilding has definitely progressed from the honeymoon stage into the "I guess I love you, but this is not going to be as easy as I had hoped" stage. For some reason, the layers of epoxy simply will not go on as smoothly as they should, which isn't the end of the world, but it does mean a TON of sanding is required. Although there is an electric sander at my disposal, I find it quicker and safer (don't want to accidentally sand completely through to the wood) to simply sand by hand. It's a great workout, but it is severely delaying progress. After messing with various application techniques and tools, it seems to me that it is most likely the combination of this particular epoxy with the warm Texas climate that is my problem. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do about it at this point, so I just have to accept that this boat, like most women, really enjoys a good massage. Although FYI, I did have better success with using foam brushes than with the suggested foam rollers. It takes longer, but produces less bubbles and a little more even surface.

That being said, the last couple days have been fairly uneventful. Seeing as how every piece of the boat must being double coated in epoxy (on both sides), the general routine is roughly 4-6 hours of sanding followed by applying a layer of epoxy which cures overnight. In most cases, this means 4 rounds of applying epoxy and sanding per board. At this point, I have coated all the strakes, bulheads, and many of the smaller pieces in 2 coats of epoxy, although the final sanding has yet to be done. The seats, skeg, and rubrails still need to be coated, but since they will not be required for some time, I figure that I can be coating them on the side while I do more eventful things like actually stitching the hull together (I just want to put something together already! Is that so much to ask???).

In other news, the long lost camera cable was finally discovered... in my computer bag where it belonged. That being said, I can finally post pictures. Below is the progression of things so far.