Vesper

First coat of varnish.  Looks good, but it should look even better after 4 or 5 coats.  There’s a video attached showing the chatoyancy in the mahogany.

 

IMG_4867 — video link to show the chatoyancy of the mahogany.

Finally got to the point that I could work on the interior woodwork.  This is after stripping all the varnish and sanding in preparation for new varnish.

 

 

I’ve started varnishing but don’t have pics of that yet.

Back yard full of boats.  There are still 2 more at the lake for now but the bulk of the fleet is home.

Second version of this instrument panel I’ve made.  I neglected to make a place for the engine stop knob on the first version.  Works well, new warning lights installed.  I wanted to install it in the boat but I realized if I do I can’t test start the engine before I put it back in the boat next year so it’ll stay out for the time being.

The originals were glued to the boat with 5200 and I destroyed one getting it out. These new ones were made from teak with help from Kyle and his new table saw.  Turned out great!

 

Because the windows sandwich headliner on the interior of the boat I had to get that glued in before I put the windows back in… and I needed the windows back in so the boat was weatherproof before winter.  I was extremely nervous gluing the headliner back in.  It goes on with contact cement so you get one shot to get it right or else you have to tear it out and wire brush the foam off and clean it all with acetone again before the next shot.  Help from Lorena and Ryan made this an easy job with no mistakes.  It turned out great.

 

The through-hulls that were originally in the boat were gate valves, a big  no-no on a sailboat so they had to be replaced.   The big one is the exhaust.  The Yanmar exhaust is 2″, while the Volvo was 1.5″ (of course) so that had to be swapped out for a bigger one.

 

Started putting the deck hardware back on.  When I originally painted the deck this summer I foolishly thought I could get it painted and the hardware back on in one week.  HA!!  It’s been a couple of months of fitting and epoxy work to get here but it’s looking good.  If you click that image below you can zoom in and see how I modified the bow pulpit.

 

Just shot of the original arrangement of the bow pulpit feet before I modified it so that I can get an anchor roller (or two) on the bow.

 

A box just arrived at the house and this is what was inside. The old winches were okay, but not up to modern standards.  Since I plan on doing some offshore passages with this boat I wanted self-tailers for the jib sheets so I can singlehand the boat while Lorena is off watch.  These are the Practical Sailor top rated winches so they should do the job okay.