Week 13

The final week before Pompano is launched is mostly successful with some snags. I hired Brendan to come by and paint the name, Pompano, on the transom. I knew she couldn't be launched without a name, and Brendan came by and did a wonderful job. It was perfect because I was having wisdom teeth pulled so I was away from the boat which gave Brendan some time to work without distraction.

The big project this week was installing the rub rails which went on mostly without incident. I installed them fair to the eye and put a 1 1/4" SS screw every 7 inches and shaped them at the bow and stern. There are little notches cut out at the bow for bronze plated to act as chafe gear for the bow lines.

I worked a lot on the coamings this week. I searched through the boatyards stock of air dried white oak, to find that I wouldnt be able to work around the sap wood and knots for my long and wide coaming boards. Brad helped me pick out some beautiful Philippine Mahogany. So I traced out my patterns, cut out the wood and got it in the steam box. After about 40 minutes, Brad, Mike, and Dave helped me bend them into the boat, but with a little bit of pressure, the first boat exploded in half. The kiln dried wood was just too stiff and even after steaming, wouldnt take the bend. So I had to start from scratch. Thankfully, Brad helped me rebound and selected some beautiful Wana from a 30' long board that he re-sawed with me to make my new pieces. The next day we had the steamed in and clamped in place. Unfortunately, I ran out of time with them and will have to finish them up when the boat is in the water.

I also got a lot of varnishing done this week. The toe rails, overall, recieved 3 coats of Allspar and 4 coats of Epiphanes varnish. The rub rails got 2 coats of Allspar and 3 coats of Epiphanes. I also spent some time installing hardware. The bow cleat and thru port were bedded and installed as well as the after spinnaker cleats and deck mounts on either side. I basically wanted enough hardware installed for the launching and towing of the boat from the ramp to the boatyard, where I could easily finish installing the rest of the hardware.

The most important thing for the launch, however, is probably the bilge pump, which I installed and wired to the batter and a three way switch mounted on the inner bulkhead. With that in and working, I feel confident that she wont sink after being launched. With that, the rudder was hung and the tiller put on, and a general clean up. Then, on Monday the 10th and 12:30pm she will be picked up by Nauset Marine and launched at the town ramp. Lets hope she floats as well as I wish!