Sailing Rig
8-Sept-2016 Well the boat is waiting to be flipped over after painting the bottum. It is raining again. Time to start worrying about making the boat move. I've cut out the mast previously and am trying to sand it smooth. Cutting a 4x4 board into the proper shape did not work out. The saw only cut a little over 3 inches deep. I made multiple cuts trying to have the cuts meet up from each side to meet in the middle. Did not happen that way. I have many spots on the boards where excess material needs to be sanded off. I've gone through 3 50 grain belts on my belt sander and I'm not even half way through. No rush though. I won't have a sailing rig done for this year. Jeanette is not helping me with this part of the work. Constant sanding is hard and boring. I never asked her to help because I did not beleive she would learn anything or be interested.
Rowing Assembly
8-Sept-2016 I am not happy with the oar lock holders I made according to the plans. Oar locks have a tiny hole in the bottum which you put a pin in. This keeps the oar lock from coming out of the holder. That part of the oar lock is enclosed with wood in the version done up in the plans. I cut a hole in order to get at this part but I have created a weak point that may crack in the future. Also the oar lock holder in the plans has no way to run bolts through in order to mount the metal plate or actual metal orlock holding device which goes on top of the wooden assembly. You have to use screws. Screws are not very good for any device which undergoes a great deal of stress. Expecally in multiple directions. Rowing puts the oar locks under a great deal of continual stress both forwards and backwards. As well as all of this the type of wooden oar lock holder called for in the plans is permenantly mounted to the side hull. If it fails replacing it will prove to be very difficult if not impossible.
Instead I am going to install another type of oar lock holder. I installed the same type on the 3-in-1 Little Squirt when I built it and it worked fine. It does not block the pin on the bottum of the oar lock and is easy to replace. You can see the type of oarlocks I will be making in the picture below. Bolts will run through the oarlock holder. Then through the top deck and then finally through a piece of plywood which acts as a stiffener.
25-Sept-16 Spent three days shaping the mast. I doesn't need to be round but it does need to be rounded. Also it is tapered from a point part way up the mast to the top. First cut it to shape with a rotary saw. Then I tried using a belt sander. Five belts later I tried a Sure form shaper. Too Slow. I then used a antique plane owned by my father in laws father. I did a pretty good job cleaning up the rought spots and rounding the edges. I then finished it off with a belt sander. I bought some spar urethane which I am now in the process of putting on three coats. This is the first of the three.
