Sunday, February 20, 2011

Thwart and Mast Step

My friend Kevin was visiting for the weekend so of course I made him work for room and board. Reaching into the bow section to install the forward mast step is tough for a someone with stumpy little arms like mine. Fortunately, Kevin has freaky orangutan arms, so no problem.



He does nice work. But there is always a chance he installed a small charge under the mast step that he can set off remotely the first time we race. We are a bit competitive about the racing.


This is his boat. Skate is a schooner-rigged proa. Very fast.



Meanwhile, I was working on the centerboard trunk and thwart. I managed to find a very nice piece of 12" wide African mahogany for the thwart. It was a rusty red color in the rough-cut blank. But once I planed and sanded it a bit, it lightened up to look almost like a cedar. I'll be curious to see what it looks like with the final finish.




I built the centerboard trunk to be a tiny bit taller then the final designed height. The contraption below is for scribing a line along the top of the trunk to exactly match the height of the seat tops. This way if I decide to make removable bunk slats to cover the footwell space, they will make a perfectly flat surface all the way across the cockpit.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Centerboard Trunk

Most of my time lately has been spent in the shop shaping foils and glassing the centerboard trunk. It's been too cold outside to do any work on the cockpit. Even with a heater running full bore in the shop it has been pretty cold. But now it is in the 60s and 70s and I can start fitting the centerboard trunk in place. Here it is dry fit together with the partially faired centerboard installed.