-Week 47 & 48 PHOTOS- two weeks, many photos-

Dave's beautiful work on the rudder.

The finished companionway ladder.

Here it is getting installed in the boat.

Here is the rough centerboard laminated with Ipe that Brad is building.

Dave closes the door on the rudder and prepares to clamp it shut.

A little shim I built for the bow cap rail.

The first coat of Cetol on the Locust rub rails.

The decks get covered with heavy construction paper before the finishing process so that nothing gets spilt on the teak.

A quick shot of the MC-30 poster that I designed for PBW to bring up to the Maine Boats and Home show last month.

Here are the companion way hatches with stain and cetol.

Meg shows us how to stain the mahogany.

Here is the mahogany with the stain on, before cetol.

Drew begins to apply cetol to the mahogany.

After Oliver and I take a week of for a cruise on the IMPALA, we return to an empty shop.

And a beautiful looking boat on the railway:

While we were gone, the topsides were finished, all brightwork as well.

The water ways were painted.

And the coach house roof as well.

My first project upon returning was adding deadwood to the section of lead ballast that was removed to save weight.

The rudder installed and sealed with epoxy.

Here I begin to kerf cut the deadwood.

And chisel it out.

Here is Brad's rudder, covered in a clear coat of epoxy.

The deadwood installed and sealed with epoxy.

Oliver worked on making the stanchion base blocks and here he installs them with natural bedding compound.

The Last Shot of The Week, the centerboard is finished and painted with E-paint bottom paint.

- Week 45 & 46 PHOTOS- making the companionway hatch, cap rails.

Here, you can see the two 'dutchmens' that I added of Teak inbetween the teak decking and the bulwarks.

Brendan's beautiful work on the sliding companionway hatch.

Brendan fits the lid for the hatch.

Here are the details of the hatch.

a box of shiny new winches showed up this week.

And brendan began coating the companionway hatch

The mahogany boards that I turn into some sawn cap rail sections for the curvature back aft.

Here they are traced, cut and fitted before any scarphs or shaping.

The final product, clamped and glued.

A detail of the middle scarph joint.

Installing the cap rails, Brendan flexes in the scarph on the full length rail into the aft section that I made.

A detail of the cap rail at the bow.

This is where the full length cap rail joins the aft section. Notice the bedding compound on the left, no glue for these.

The aft section rounded over and bunged.

nearly 100 bungs for the cap rails were put in on Thursday.

Brendan uses a little bit of G-flex to hold the bow pieces together.

The Last Shot of The Week. A detail of on the the aft sections I built.

-Week 43 & 44 Write Up- bulwarks, rub rails, lead ballast, cockpit coaming, etc.

During week 43, we attached the cedar bulwarks to the Wana base. This was actually easier then it may seem, because we used large wood screws all the way through the cedar to tie it into the Wana, with a healthy schlep of glue to tie it all in. The tops were left tall, but were cut down by Brendan with the jig saw, then final tweaking with the power planer and hand plane. Brendan installed the chocks, both the Lignamvitae in the stern and the bronze in the bow. He also managed to install the cockpit coaming and cut out the cockpit locker hatches.

Oliver and I did a lot of sanding, focusing on the waterways and adding a fillet of thickened epoxy with fairing compound to assist the water flow. This was sanded again and two layers of clear epoxy were rolled onto the waterways.

The next week, Dave begun working on the centerboard box, making insane templates, and drilling out holes in the 7500 lbs of lead ballast that is now sitting outside for the keelbolts.

After Oliver and I milled out the Locust for the rub rails to spec, Brendan passed them through the table saw at an angle to get the classic sweeping herreshoff shape. Oliver and I had a bear of a week getting those installed and were happy when they had bungs in them. The Locust is so strong and hard that it was impossibly to bend them into shape, hold them up to the boat to spile, etc, that we had to make a jig out of plywood in order to find the shape of the sheer of the boat.

We managed to get a little work done on the mahogany cap rails, milling them out to an inch thickness, and ripping them to two inches. Then, while they still had right angles, we cut the ornate scarphs in them that will be seen when varnished.

Brendan meanwhile spent a good deal working on getting the bronze front piece installed. He had to hand make certain pieces to get it all to work, and even had to trim off some of the bronze on the chocks with the metal working jig saw.

A very productive two weeks.

- WEEK 44 PHOTOS- Ballast work, rub rails, etc

Dave removes the centerboard trunk to take measurements and make a jig for fitting the lead ballast.

this is what the bilge looks like without the center board trunk.

Brendan hands off the Locust rub rails to Oliver and I to put in some heavy hand sanding with 40 grit.

Dave shapes the lead ballast.

And begins drilling some keel bolt holes.

Here is the scarph for the mahogany cap rails.

Dave drilling the centerboard pin hole.

A detail of the hole through to the other side.

Cap rails glued up and ready to sand.

The sanded finish.

In preperation for the locust rub rails, oliver mixes up a batch of natural bedding compound.

Here, we have begun to fasten the locust rub rails in place.

With the bedding compound cleaned and bungs in place, it looks pretty nice.

Brendan works on installing the bronze bow chocks and bow fitting.

Another view.

The Last Shot of The Week. Brendan cleans up the glue from the bow section.