Deck caulking

Busy weekend last weekend. Other than the mainmast, time was dedicated to caulking the deck using a polyurethane based black sealant.
In all I used 9 cartridges , using a hand operated gun to squeeze out the glue. Professional builders use pneumatic guns for the task and I quickly understood the reason why: it's so hard and tiresome to do it by manual strength alone!

Priori to applying the sealant, the teak strips have been protected by masking tape leaving out only the gaps, ready to receive the a coat of primer followed by the black goop.

After removal of the tape the results are encouraging and the required amount of sanding feels mangeable. We'll see if I'm wrong in saying that!

Birds are out

Spring's here, birds are out singing.... perfect season to be outside building a birdsmouth main mast!

Lots of epoxy, tie-wraps but luckily the electrical cable to power the masthead light didn't get stuck in the glue.

out in the sun

After weeks of dusty garage.... Finally getting an early morning sun ray... The se a is only 2 km away...

Coamings !

Coamings are on.  I went for a slightly different shape than the one drawn in the plans.  The shape evolved by iteration between sighting,  tracing and planing.

All along I worried whether it'd be too low to keep water out or too high and have a bulky look.  I'm happy with the result,  only experience will say whether they work as they should.
I will add a mahogany capping profile to protect the upper edge.


In this photo the inboard arrangement is also visible.

  Tested the motor and it works ok.  I need to finalise the belt driven water cooling pump....  That's on tonight's to-do list!!