Boat Builder Central

About 5 inches of the wooden mast is trimmed to fit inside the aluminum one. That was done by hand sanding and chiseling the shoulder. I could have done it while I had the lathe set up but I didn't know the inside diameter of the Sunfish mast. https://www.community.boatbuildercentral.com/gallery/alb...

Having been suitably chastised and now repentant, :D I rounded the top end of the mast by hand. https://www.community.boatbuildercentral.com/gallery/albums/userpics/91275/393_Top_of_mast_rounded_and_sanded.JPG Then I built a 15-foot worktable to do the rest of my spar-building https://www.community....

Here's the blank taken down to a 32-sided polygon. https://www.community.boatbuildercentral.com/gallery/albums/userpics/91275/378_Triacontadigon_2832_sided29.JPG That's a triacontadigon if you must know. All the lines on the end were to help lay out the starting octagon. The arrow was to give me a r...

As I mentioned a bunch of pages back, I obtained an old Sunfish rig, including sail, for a song. The only problem was the mast was bent down near the deck end. Bummer. But, the original Sunfish mast was a hybrid: four feet of aluminum tube topped with six feed of wooden mast. Well, my bent mast has ...

Time for the mundane: I made ventilation plates. These replace the solid inspection hatch covers during the off-season allowing the hull to air out a bit. Screens keep critters out. https://www.community.boatbuildercentral.com/gallery/albums/userpics/91275/367_Ventilation_Plates.JPG I took the hatch...

Finished the last of the forged hardware. A bracket to hold up the splash coaming: https://www.community.boatbuildercentral.com/gallery/albums/userpics/91275/363_Coaming_Brace_1.JPG And the bow handle: https://www.community.boatbuildercentral.com/gallery/albums/userpics/91275/366_Bow_Handle.JPG

Finished a couple more hardware bits: https://www.community.boatbuildercentral.com/gallery/albums/userpics/91275/359_Halyard_Fairlead_-_corner_view.JPG Halyard Fairlead. The fairlead is only about 1.5 inches high. It'll sit near the base of the mast and turns the halyard (rope that hoists the sail u...

I've been using a Bosch 5-inch ROS with great success (ROS20VSC). It does the job. Hooked up to a shop vac there is no dust flying around the shop. It leaves some dust on the surface - you still have to vacuum the boat & wipe it down with denatured alcohol. Overall I've been pleased with it.

>> You have some mad skills! <<

A lot more now than I started this adventure with.

>> But you are building one heck of a boat! <<

Thanks, all.

>> unrecoverable teal <<

Is that kind of like avocado green from the '60's?