Painting

The hull finally got painted last week. Took a lot of time to prep the boat and the spraying equipment and shop. Thursday Rick sprayed on the topcoat of Awlgrip Off -White. I was his hose slave and guided the two air hoses and gun hose over and around the staging and obstacles while he concentrated on spraying. We did four coats and by the last coat the lighting was getting to be a challenge being an overcast day and it was hard to see how we were doing. The result was great though and am very pleased with the results. The photos with my point and shoot camera are not very good and everything is so shiny the photos are full of reflections. But here it is anyways to get the idea.

Rick Spraying the 545 epoxy primer

The topcoat the next morning. Time to unwrap the boat.

Door Work

Some pictures of the cabinet door work since it is not that interesting to take photos of paint and varnish coat number this or that. Coat 6 looks pretty much like coat 8. Finished spraying the hull this week so will post photos of that as well.

For cabinet doors I really like using loose tenons for construction. It has a lot of advantages such as simple and quick to make, very strong, and measuring out the rails and stiles is simpler. Plus it still feels like honest woodworking and not cheating. I make up lengths of lose tenon stock out of what ever hardwood I have in the shorts bin.

Fitting hinges. Not my favorite job. The hinges are set into the frame bead. Normally I would let in the hinges 50/50 but here I want the hing pin to line up in the bead to I set them in enough to give me a nice door gap and surface mount them on the door frame.

A pile of doors. There is a total of 20 doors and 4 drawers on the boat. You would not think there would be so many but they add up. The regular cabinetry are solid frame and panel with a bead around the frame. When deciding on the aesthetics for the boat I got a lot of inspiration from an old Wooden Boat article on the re-building of a Sardine Carrier "GRAYLING" by Doug Hylan. The cabinet doors and hardware (catches by Phoenix Lock) and settee backs are mainly inspired by studying those photos ( Wooden Boat Issues; 141 & 142 Mar/April 98 & May/June 98 ). I like a quote written in the article that said something to the extent that the router should not be an arbiter of taste. Hand shaping bulwarkcaps, bulkhead caps, counter edges and fiddles to a more pleasing oval shape is much nicer than a simple machined round over. 

Details of  "GRAYLING" can be seen here:
 http://www.pagetraditionalboats.com/grayling.htm

 The sail locker doors I decided to build with slats to promote air circulation. 

Some bead details around the starboard settee book shelf locker.

Construction detail of the galley sliding door frame. The top bead is set into a rabbet in the frame. The frame is joined with a bridle joint. I used raised finger holes for the sliding doors.