Salish Sea Pocketship

 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!

 This is a nice milestone for me.  I milled my floorboards from a pair of large western cedar planks.  That was a fun job made easier by having access to a full woodworking shop equipped with a large bandsaw for resawing the planks into smaller boards and large jointer and planer to finish them to size.   It took some head scratching but I finally was able to get a pretty fair curve on the boards.  Now I'm ready to varnish. I started by putting a layer of epoxy on all surfaces of the boards.  Cedar is a pretty soft wood and the epoxy has hardened it up nicely. For varnish, I'm planning to apply several coats of Epifanes.  At this point I'[m using the high gloss but may decide to use the satin as the last coat. Space is at a premium so I came up with the idea to string wire between the cradle arms to hold the long boards while they dry.  I also made to smaller stands to support the smaller boards.  This has worked out great.  

 I milled up a pile of western cedar boards for use as the cabin sole.  It's mostly knot free and the knots I have are small-ish.   Here is the port side roughed in.