Good to Go

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

The Boat Cover

The Cover Shop, located in Meridian, Idaho http://www.coversyou.com/, crafted a fine custom cover for this Penobscot made out of Top Gun material. As specified by our customer, the cover has a weighted transom flap and adjustable straps to connect underneath the hull. The three ash bows that Tom fabricated will work in conjunction with the cover to create an arch which will prohibit water from pooling on the cover.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Varnish and Paint

After applying two coats of CPES Penetrating Epoxy Sealer, Tom applied three coats of Epifanes Clear Varnish with a light sanding in between each coat. After the varnish cured, the boat was flipped and prepped for painting. After applying two coats of Interlux Primer and two coats of Interlux Brightside White paint with, once again, a light sanding in between coats, we are close to being finished.

While the various coats cured, Tom laminated knees for the fore and aft center thwarts. Once the boat was flipped back over again, he was able to fit, shape, sand, varnish, and install them. He also installed the stern seat slats after painting the bulkheads, built a bunk for the customer's dock, and ripped three ash bows for use with the boat's cover. After attaching all of the bronze hardware, you can't help but marvel at the beauty of this boat.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Finishing Out the Interior (Part Three)

Here's a better look at that quarter knee

The building phase is just about complete. This week, Tom added the trim and the sunburst design to the bow seat. We had ordered three sets of brackets (they were chrome as bronze was not available). Each would hold a flexed piece of wood which would then "tent" the cover so that water would not pool on it. But, it just didn't feel right putting those metal brackets on this beautiful wooden boat, so we didn't. Tom fabricated brackets out of mahogany and they blend in much nicer and look far better than the metal ones. He also built the oarlock chocks, rounded the edges of the gunwhales, drilled the stem for the bronze bow eye, applied two coats of penetrating epoxy and the first coat of varnish.

Presently, Tom is building the stern seat. The slats will be cut to match the sunburst design on the bow seat. Also, he is laminating the knees for the fore and aft center thwarts out of Phillipine Mahogany.

The oars arrived from Shaw and Tenney (http://www.shawandtenney.com/) out of Orono, Maine and they are beautiful. They're 8' flat blade spruce with 10" sewn leathers.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Finishing Out the Interior (Part Two)

Tom has been working on the interior. So far, he has the breasthook in place which is really going to look nice once the varnish is on. It is a substantial piece of African Mahogany with a beautiful grain. He finished the exposed edge with a nice curve.

The gunwhales are on, hence all of the clamps. They are also done in African Mahogany to match the breasthook. The quarter knees are on at the stern, you can see one of them in the third photograph.

The forward and aft center thwarts (seats) have been dry fitted, but will be removed for routing, sanding, and varnishing. Tom built the thwart knees but was not happy with them, so he is rebuilding them.

Next up:

• Thwart knees
• Bow seat
• Stern seat
• Socket pads for the oar locks
• Socket pads for the cover

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Treasures From the Chandlery

For this boat, we have primarily relied on Jamestown Distributors out of Bristol, Rhode Island http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/ and Hamilton Marine out of Searsport, Maine http://www.hamiltonmarine.com/ for our supplies and hardware. Jamestown has very competitive prices and is a one-stop-shop for most of the products we use and Hamilton Marine recently had a very good sale on hardware that we took advantage of. Both companies have proven to be very personable to work with and provide excellent customer service.

Our shipments from Jamestown included one quart of Interlux 4279 Primer White Pre-Kote, two quarts of Interlux 4359 White Brightside paint, four quarts of Epifanes high gloss clear varnish with extra UV filter, one .98 gallon West System 105 Epoxy Resin, one .33 gallon West System 207 Special Clear Hardener, one quart System Three Wood Flour, one quart Phenolic Microballoons Low Density Filler, one quart Chopped Glass, two quarts Interlux 4359 Brightside Polyurethane, one quart Interlux 4233 Brightside Polyurethane, one quart Interlux 2398c Intergrip No Skid Compound, two 2 quart kits of CPES Penetrating Epoxy Sealer, three pairs Whitecap Bow Sockets (two were shipped, third set is en route), one box Silicon Bronze Wood Screws 8 x 1-1/4, one box Silicon Bronze Wood Screws 8 x 1-1/2, one box Silicon Bronze Wood Screws 8 x 1-3/4, 600 8 x 3/4 Stainless Steel Screws, a variety of larger sized silicon bronze screws, one box foam brushes, several foam roller covers, a box of glue brushes, plus a roll of 1/4" blue vinyl tape.

Our shipment from Hamilton Marine included a pair of 2.25" round 1/2" shank bronze oarlocks, two pairs of top mount bronze oarlock sockets, a couple of 5" bronze cleats, and one 3/8" x 4" bronze bow eye.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.

Finishing Out the Interior (Part One)

A cradle for the boat has been built and it sits on top of the building jig base. This brings the boat up to a nice working height. With the addition of foam, the cradle will also be used in the delivery of the boat.

The first task after turning the boat over was to clean up any epoxy squeeze out that wasn’t cleaned up before it cured. Luckily there were only a few spots that needed attention. The entire interior of the boat then received a thorough sanding before starting the building process again.

A laser level was used to layout the riser lines for the front and rear seats/flotation compartments. I don’t know how they did this accurately before lasers came along. Tech, tech, technology. We're grateful for it. After the lines were drawn, Tom installed the risers as you can see in the photos above.

We feel we are getting close to being done but there are still many items to complete, i.e. seats, oarlock chocks, breast hook, gunwales, epoxy saturation, quarter knees, etc. etc. After the building is complete, the final phase will be the paint and varnish.

Row, row, row your boat...life is but a dream.