Im a Girl So...

changing my mind comes with the territory. After spending a small fortune and several days on the plywood scheme, I changed my mind at the last minute and installed the boards instead. The plywood had started to warp quite badly from curing in a cold damp room and looked like it was going to be a hassle to install neatly,so I decided to try going with the boards after all. The reason I wasnt going to in the beginning, was I thought I was going to have to steam them all to make them fit tight. Lots of clamps, glue and a zillion screws later and they are in and looking fine if I say so myself.I'm very proud of the finished result and much happier to have real boards in there.







My arms are still going numb every night, so I am trying to avoid lots of repetative work on the boat. To that end, I hired a young man to come over last Saturday and grind the paint off the bottom. It was a chore I was dreading doing as it would require laying on my back and holding the heavy grinder over my head.

It was the best hundred bucks Ive ever spent. He did a great job and got it all done in one day. While he was here, I had him and David work on getting all the through-hulls removed.( Most of them had to be cut off as they were so rusted)David got most of the routering finished so Im having my helper back this Saturday to pull out the last of the caulking and to start filling the seams with fairing putty. Whoohooo...finally progress being made.I had my doubts that this would ever get done, but now that we are this far along, Im starting to feel hopeful.

The main challenge left now, is to figure out how Im going to rebuild the side decks and get the last boards just under them installed.There are a few patches that need to be installed, one over the big drafty hole behind the bed and I want to cover the two holes in the back of the transom. Im not sure what their original purpose was, but all they seemed to do was be a doorway for rodents to get onboard.Once all that is done, I'll go over the whole boat with a grinder and sander to smooth out any bumps and then the fiberglassing can start. I have no idea what I'm in for there but hopefully it goes well and quickly. I would love to have this done by the end of the year. Wishful thinking perhaps, but its amazing how much work gets done with a few helping hands.