Here's a better look at that quarter kneeThe 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.
