Launch Day: Prelude

The day is upon us!  The boat is ready, more or less.  Cosmetically, it's unfinished - weather has prevented me from painting the stripe I want it to have, and the interior could use another coat of the base color.

But all of the major questions are answered.  I'm halfway through lashing her all together and rigging in the back yard to ensure there aren't any unforeseen problems before I transport it to the local state park where we'll launch.  I did have to re-drill a couple of the tuki holes in the ama, as they weren't lining up right.  And the fancy windsurfer mast turns out to be too stiff for the crabclaw :( But I had a backup.

Anyway, I'll post a wrap-up here later in the weekend.  There's work to be done!

Much to tell, no time to tell it

Apologies for announcing I would launch soon, then disappearing.  I am indeed on track to launch in June, but just barely:  I've declared a launch party on the 30th, at our local state park lake.  There's a lot to be done to meet that deadline, but it should be doable, if only just. 

Since the beginning of the month, I've:

• completed glassing and epoxy coating the exterior seams
• faired the bow and stern
• applied 3 coats of yellow paint
• built and installed a "Y" mount for my reclaimed windsurfer mast
• cut a new "Y" for my bamboo spar
• purchased, shaped and painted a pine log to use for the outrigger
• trimmed my crossbeams to shape
• cut all the little crossbeam support sticks ("tuki") 
• and applied a coat of varnish to the paddles

Still to do before launch in 4 days:

• purchase, cut, splice and install all rigging
• paint the stripe along the gunwales
•  stitch the sail numbers onto the sail
• finish varnishing paddles
• test-assemble the boat in the back yard so that I know what I'm doing
• and apply for state registration, which is required of sailboats

 Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get going - there's a lot of work to do yet!