Launched.

Launched this morning. Textbook operation, and she floats pretty close to her lines. Thanks to all involved. More pics to come...

Launching on Wednesday

Well looks like we'll be launching a few weeks early. The big crane from CS Marine is going to be headed out for a two month job on Oct 1, so it's either now or in December. Considering we've been kind of bouncing around homeless since we sold the Seabird, now is good. We expect the rig to show up around 0730 Wed and if all goes well we should be in the water by lunchtime. Feel free to stop by if you are in the neighborhood. Assuming the boat floats close to her marks and nothing leaks, we'll tie up at the pier there for a couple of more weeks while we finish plumbing, wiring, and all the other stuff we would be doing now if we weren't scrambling around and getting ready to go in the water. Over this last weekend we put a fresh coat of bottom paint on with the much appreciated help of our good friend Dave. Dave will be starting his own boat building project next spring and is busy racking up lots of good boat building karma (and promises of future labor swaps) helping us with our fit-out. We also installed the prop and re-torqued all the underwater hardware. Another day or two of "below the water line" work, and we should be ready...

Finishing "back porch" and more galley work

Not much time to write (more on this later). Here's some recent work... Aft deck "back porch" is just about done. Just have to finish installing screws and apply a coat of oil. I'm really happy with the Ipe wood that we used. Super durable, but my tools hate it... very hard on drill bits and saw blades. Also picked up the galley countertop (quartz), sink, and faucet. Currently this stuff is all fit-up only and not permanently installed, but this will give you an idea of the final look.

Finishing Galley Cabs, Starting on Aft Deck

Finished up the galley cabs with the most complicated part of this project, the dreaded overhead cabinets... These were difficult because of the overhead that they attach to which has not only a compound camber, but also rises in elevation going forward. This made for a tricky design and installation. I won't bother to describe what I came up with, the pictures explain it best. In the end it was worth the effort as it adds a lot of needed storage and really makes the galley come together. The overhead cabs also make the sitting area forward a little more cozy. To make for an easier fit for the countertop, I built up a raised panel behind the cabinets. The front panel will be covered with a Lyptus veneer to match the cabinets, and the top will be capped with a nice piece of mahogany. The area behind, above, and to the left of the stove will be covered with brushed stainless steel sheet metal to act as a heat shield for these surfaces. A black quartz based counter-top and a stainless steel sink should just about finish the galley for now. We received our delivery of Ipe wood for the aft deck last week, so that has been the primary project for this weekend. This involves building a raised frame and deck so that we have a nice comfortable place to sit outside. While I really like the aesthetics of the cambered deck and am very impressed with how quickly it sheds water (a big plus safety-wise in serious weather), it makes a lousy place to set a deck chair. This will effectively give us a "back porch" of just the right size for a few chairs and a table. Frame is now mostly complete. Tomorrow I'll be working on the planking. The whole thing will be tied securely (I hope) to the deck using j-bolts hooked into the pad-eyes around the aft hatch coaming.