Bottom paint

First coat of bottom paint went on today. It took just over half of a quart of Petit Horizons.

I'll have to buy another quart. I want to put at least two coats on, and three if I can stand it. It took two hours. It was difficult to reach up into the daggerboard boxes because of the fenders, but not impossible.

That white definitely must go; it's too small.

Sometimes I feel like this is a dream and the bubble will soon pop!

Lifted Up!

Starchy helped me lift Firefly up and tape her waterline. The waterline is adequate—I decided not to be too fussy about it. Just want to go sailing! The darker green tape is the splash guard.

There's just enough room now between the bunk and the hull to put my hand in and sand, or use a small roller. I also patched a small hole that must have come from something getting caught between the bunk and the hull.

(I need to add more rubber pads to the tops of the drums and move them out a bit.)

The boat is not resting on the block in the foreground; that's just a backup for the jack, which you can just see behind it. The pads on the drums are for stabilizing, not load-bearing.

I brought the waterline up almost two inches, and more at the bow, which I hope the ballast will compensate for. There's not as much white showing as I thought there would be, so I'm considering painting it red.

Her bottom is all sanded now, and waiting for the epoxy patch to kick so it can be painted.

Metal boat bits

John Booth made me a nice tiller catch:

It attaches to the side of the rudder and keeps the tiller attached, since it's only held to the rudder with a bolt at its after end. It allows the tiller to be pivoted on the bolt and still useful for steering.

Here are some of the backing plates for the handrails:

This also shows the doubled cabin top beams. The second beam has a handrail bolt secured through it. There are six bolts securing each handrail.

Tabernacle Collar

Here's the original piece of metal securing the top parts of the tabernacle sides:

You can see that the starboard side has a split in it. Not good. So John made me a tabernacle collar out of some sturdy stainless:

It wraps around to the forward side of the tabernacle, holding the boards together against splitting:

New Feet for the A-frame

I wanted to be able to raise the mast with the stays still attached to the chainplates, so I opened a pre-existing hole below the stay attachment hole for the A-frame to seat in. Trouble was, I couldn't put the nut on the bolt because the hole was too close to the deck. So I bent some stainless ready rod and used it without a nut:

The hook keeps the rod in the hole on the chainplate. A bonus that comes with that is that now I can attach the A-frame pieces to the chainplates while standing on the deck, with no need to crouch down and fiddle with a nut.

The stays will be attached to the chainplates with Spectra line, not the stretchy nylon in the photo.

Tomorrow we lift Firefly up into the air to tickle her bottom.

Stats

Interesting...

Hand rails, raised mast, tent

Thanks again to Starchy for his help. The handrails were hot work in the sun, but they went on real easy. The hard part was making all the backing plates and fastening them on the inside first, which I had done over the course of the previous two days. Backing plates are 5" circles of ⅜" ply, needed because the cabin roof is only ⅛" ply.

As Starchy said, the handrails provide more strength to the cabin top. I like to think of them as an exoskeleton.

 

Once the rub rails were on, with the chain plates embedded, then I could finally raise the mast.

It was a little scarey because the ground is not level and the mast wanted to go sideways. The 5:1 purchase block & tackle worked a treat, though.

I noticed that some of the joints in the tabernacle had opened up a little from the stress of the mast wanting to go sideways—what fresh paint tells you! So I think I have to beef up the tabernacle somehow.

 

Once the mast was up, I could see if the tent poles were the right size to go over top of the boom:

You can see the decktodes are finally being utilized.

This is the boom tent that came with the boat. It almost fits. I'll use it to keep the sun off the top of the transom so I can finally paint it.

TIFN

Waterline launch

John Booth spent about two hours modifying Firefly's trailer so she could back far enough into the water to float off of it. First, four seized bolts had to be cut off. They had nuts on the inside of the galvanized steel tube that could not be reached and which were rusted on. They were replaced by two bolts that went all the way through:

Then an aluminum tube was ground down on four sides to fit into the tongue tube, with matching holes at each end,

 so that now four bolts held the whole together:

The extension was attached after towing the boat to the ramp, and was taken off before towing her back to the shop.

Here she is in the water:

 There's still blue masking tape on the transom, as it needs another couple coats of paint.

She floats very high. I went aboard briefly, and she felt quite stable.

(That's, right to left: Starchy, Josie, and Bill's friend Tommy.)

Now back to the shop for hand rails, bottom paint, and the beginnings of a cockpit cover:

rub rails and a near launch

Thanks to Starchy's help, the rub rails are fastened and bedded.

(Outer part of rub rail isn't fastened above; photo shows shape.)

Ready for launch!

Near Launch!

We took Firefly to the Fleming Beach boat ramp in Esquimalt, to launch her so that I could strike the water line:

This boat is resistant to completion, I tell you! The trailer wouldn't go into the water far enough to float the boat off. Can't tell you how excited I was to be finally seeing this boat float. But never mind, there's still lots to do. John is working on an extension tongue for the trailer, and possibly we'll use his truck instead, as the back wheels are farther forward of the hitch.

It was very sweet watching her saunter down the street all pretty-like, with her little white transom and red cheeks. I followed in my car, watching people admire her as we passed.

Here we are back in the industrial zone, where she seems most comfortable:

Note that the decktoads are now installed. (They're to hold the bottom ends of the cockpit tent poles.)

TIFN