Getting cold outside

While it's getting colder outside, the shop is a pleasant temperature, and projects are moving along nicely.  On a beautiful, sunny, late Autumn day, there are not many nicer places to work.  Lots of activity is taking place on the whaleboat, most of it focused on the ceiling.  Each plank needs to be milled from rough cedar, knots drilled out and bunged, spiled, bottoms and edges painted, and finally fitted and screwed in place.

Next-to-last ceiling plank being fitted adjacent to centerboard case

Board planed to 1/2" with knots drilled out, bunged, and surfaced before sanding

The last plank on each side had to be spiled to fit between the two adjacent ones, just like the whiskey plank in a carvel hull.  Newt and Charles took care of this, and finally hammered home the last ceiling plank yesterday afternoon.

Port side finished, starboard one ceiling plank to go.

Finally!  All ceiling planks cut and fastened into place.

A good sanding is all that's left before painting the ceiling.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the shop, John S. was preparing the thwarts for installation by priming them.  The thwart installation will take place as soon as the ceiling is painted.  

Thwarts painted and awaiting installation.

The whaleboat may be the biggest project in the shop right now, but it is not the only one.  The Lightning is gone.  Work was completed and it was delivered to its owner yesterday.  In its place is a vintage Marsh Cat, called Obadiah.  She is in the shop for repair of centerboard case leaks, but some potentially serious de-lamination was discovered in her cold molded hull in at least one location.  Bruce will examine her carefully for other hidden problems and the repair work will begin.

A view of the inside of the Marsh Cat -- a roomy and solid boat.

A de-laminated section of the hull near the stem.

To facilitate examination of the hull, we turned the boat over.  The task was made somewhat more difficult because WoW's boat flipping wizard, Jeff, was off delivering the completed Lightening, Flying Jib II to her owner.  Nevertheless, with some head scratching, a review of old blog photos, and a "What's the worst thing that could happen?" philosophy, we managed to flip her without incident.

Safely flipped, and secure on saw horses, her bottom can be carefully examined

First, the centerboard is pulled

 A bit of bad luck for John N's Comet -- when she had her first splash in October, a bad leak was discovered along the centerboard case.  While the bottom was not part of the original scope of the restoration, she is back in the shop and once again bottoms up as the WoW team works on fixing the leak.  Bruce removed and rebuilt the case, using splines to join the boards in the case sides.  He also repaired two splits in the keel adjacent to the case prior to refastening the case to the keel.

The wood alongside the slot on the Comet has been repaired and sanded.

Bruce ends the day by showing how to hold a push broom