-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.