A poem, some greenery, great friends and a nice Prosecco come together to name her Serenity.
A sprig of honeysuckle to ensure safe returns
Tag: Mill Creek 16.5 (Page 1 of 2)
For any future builders of this boat, here’s the task list I put together for the Hybrid build based on the manual and my own additions. I left in my approximate build times- for reference this is my first boat and I’m an IT guy so not a lot of transferable skills from my day job (except this spreadsheet).
With the heavy cloud cover and light rain, it was a perfect day for a Viking funeral. Unfortunately, the boat floats fine, so we’ll be throwing her back on top of the car after a nice paddle.
ESI Grips custom Chunky silicone MTB grips cover my homemade grab loops. Look Ma, no knots!
Hatches, hatches…there are two hatches. Bungees loop to hooks on the underside of the hatch covers to hold them firmly in place. A Monkey’s Fist knot in turquoise paracord forms the handle.
Shape the deck, sand the deck. Fill the gaps, let the epoxy dry, sand the deck. Fill more gaps, let the epoxy dry, sand the deck. Fill the now magically-appearing, aiming-to-crush-my-soul gaps, let the epoxy dry, sand the deck. Remember the Tootsie Pop ads?
The answer is 364, although twenty non machine-assisted lickers averaged 252 licks to get to the center.
The question now, dear readers, is how many times can you sand a deck made from 1/4″ thick wood with 80, 120, 150 and 220 grit sandpaper without discovering the other side?
Planing the deck edges
With the deck glued to the hull it’s time to shape, sand, fill, sand, sand, sand, and sand. A process known colloquially known as “fairing the boat”. Above, the boat goes in one end of the plane, art and scrap comes out the other.
Three hundred and twelve linear feet of Yellow Alaskan Cedar, Walnut and Western Red Cedar in three-quarters-of-an-inch wide planks form the deck. Ninety-six hand-cut bevels where each plank meets the deck edge. The next step will be sanding the underside and glassing it before joining it to the hull.
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- Ready for lifting off the hull
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- Complete! The culmination of a month
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- The last strip is in place
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- Ready for fitting
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- Two strips to go
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- The moment of truth, or did-I-do-something-wrong-and-glued-the deck-to-the-forms-by-accident
It’s been a busy spring, with too few snippets of time spaced too far apart. Some progress on the deck though, makes me happy.
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- The field of walnut before the next set of pinstripes. Five or so strips to go before the transition to Western Red Cedar to complete the deck.
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- The first contrasting walnut strips with the yellow cedar pinstripe installed
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- Centerline strips in place front and rear, also Alaskan Yellow Cedar
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- First Alaskan Yellow Cedar strips scarfed and stapled to form the deck
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- Forms in to shape the deck
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