Salish Sea Pocketship

Resawing the timbers had a purpose.  I made the gallows from 1/2-inch western red cedar for the sides with 1/2-inch pine in the middle.  I used solid pine at the ends and in the middle, but the rest of the gallows is hollow.  This has made it pretty light.  Here it is waiting for a final sanding and then multiple coats of varnish.      

 I'm getting close to installing the seatbacks, but before I do that there are a few other things to take care of - like the gallows.  Getting the bases installed will be alot easier without the seatbacks in place.  First step for me is to make the gallows.  I'm going to use western red cedar - it's nice and lights and I just so happen to have a few clear planks laying around.  The planks are 3" by 14" so I need to do some milling.  I started by cutting out a 6" by 64" blank.  Now for the fun part - cutting 1" planks out of that.  My table saw will only cut up to 3" and my band saw will not handle an 8" width.  So it's hand work.  I started by using a skil saw to make a cut on both sides.   Then it was a hand saw to finish the cut.   Finally I ran it thru my planer to get 1/2" planks.  I'll sandwich 1/2" pine between the 2 cedar planks to get my end dimension of 1-1/2 inch thick.  

 Ok, so it's been quite a while since I've last posted.  I have done quite a bit of work on the boats, but I've also been out playing! Anyway, now I'm working hard on the boat again.  Here is where I'm at now. Right now I'm working on the electrical setup.  I will have a USB outlet in the stern to support phones, tablets, etc.  I created a panel that mounts just inside of the seatback opening, the outlet is weatherproof, but this will give it additional protection.   I also decided to install blocking along the entire seatback area.  This will give me options for later adding things like oar locks.

Not much progress since the last entry.  I have been working on a number of smaller additions to the boat. First I read that a number of boats have had issues with cracks at bulkhead 7, so I decided to stiffen this area up a bit.  I made these stiffeners to attach to the aft side of BH7.                       I've also been working on my wiring and the addition of speed and depth transducers.  I will be installing the transducers in the aft area behind BH8.  To protect the transducers I've built boxes that will be epoxied into place.  These will also provide a bit of protection in case a transducer springs a leak.  Finally I've added a junction box for the aft wiring - stern lights and a power outlet for now.  

 Just back from a 2 week sail up to Nanaimo.  Now to get back into building.  I'm almost ready to add the hull sides, but before I do I want to get the battery box setup. I decided to go with a 46AH LiFe battery.  It is compact and quite light.  I've build a shelf to hold the battery against BH1.  I also made a conduit to hide the cables, which will go up and across the roof to the instrument panel.    

A few projects, a trip to Minnesota and some summer sailing has kept me too busy to work on the boat, but I was able to spend some time on it today. Since the last post I managed to get conduit installed.  I also installed a drainplug in bulkheads 1 and 8.   Today I installed the floorboards.  I made these from western red cedar and covered them with 5 coats of varnish.  I think they look good!