Side Decks... Impending Haul out.... Main bulkheads...

The benefit of working late, is the occasional after dark money shot. Yeah, I had to lay down on the dock in a boat yard... covered in fiberglass dust... eaten alive by no-seeums... the things we boat nuts will do to satisify the voices inside our heads...





So... You may have noticed that I start and stop projects devoting 100% on each one for the moment... a day here, a week there...

Pylasteki gets ten days starting tomorrow. She will be hauled out, 9:00 am impending no set backs...

Starboard side deck is done with the exception of the last few inches of old balsa... did it floating, so had to have somewhere to rest my foot to reach the middle... Not suggested, but I wanted to have the cabin top stay stiff while I pull out the bulkheads. Yeah, a pain in the lower back but it can be done. I put in a 2x4 prop under the cabin top to keep it from going anywhere with my weight laying on it.

This is a lot more fiberglass than it looks like:

I spent the afternoon cutting tabbing for my bulkheads, and discs for through hulls, and the 12 x 24 inch stuff is to go under the mast.

How to cut Bi-ax fast without a mess:

Cutting Bi-ax... Stand farther away from your rotary cutter (Fabric store = Walmart) than you think you need to. Look at the cutter, not where it was, or where it is going. Pick a line of stitching and follow it... Set up side lighting from the left if you are right handed, so your hand isn't casting a shadow on where it's going.

Go back and cut the little stitches holding the piece to the rest of the cloth, sliding the two apart just wide enough to slip in scissors. Pick it up from the stitched edge, at least a few inches away from the ends... and roll starting from that point back towards the end, and then roll it up just barely tight enough that friction holds it put. To tight a radius and ya end up with wrinkles... to loose and it flops out of the roll and is hard to deal with.

Alrighty... Wish me luck, I've got 10 days to prep and paint the bottom, fill 4 through hulls (well... maybe 6, depends how adventurous I'm feeling) Replace the main bulkhead, laminate a new mast beam, redo the coring under the lower dog house, and figure out how I want to move the chain plates outside.

Pictures and such as they come... Epoxy mixers and helpers would be spectacular, if theres anyone out there in driving distance to Beaufort, NC.... grin.

Zach