I purchased my pocketship kit back in October 2024. Plan was to spend the fall arranging the shop, acquiring tools and wood needed for the project and possibly getting started on parts like the spars. I'm fortunate to have a workshop that is just big enough for this job. I worked on the spars first since the weather was warm and dry and I could do alot of the work outside. All my spars are made from Douglas fir. I was able to find timbers that were long enough for most of the spars but had to do scarf joints for the mast. That was fun and I think it came out fine. Right now the spars are epoxied and stored overhead in the rafters. I've also built the centerboard, the centerboard case and the keel. Had a bit of drama with the keel where in spite of all my caution and measuring, I still manage to not get it straight. I ended up making a relief cut at the case and putting in a block that allowed me to straighten the keel perfectly....
Now that the lower hull panels are wired in, it's time for the bulkheads 4 and 7. I started by dry fitting them and checking the alignment. This went easily and I only had to do some light trimming on one side of BH7 to get a nice level fit. To make it easier to check alignment of the bulkheads and foot boards, I cut a small hole it BH7 to allow my level to pass thru. Everything lined up great. At this point I screwed the bulkheads to the CB case, then gave everything a final check. I love the laser level! Now to epoxy the bulkheads in and I'm done for the day.
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.
What a tricky part of the build. Looks great!
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