Friday, February 15, 2013

The Plover Project -- Life in the Boat Yard (part 3)

Life goes on at the boatyard. We've had a lot of rain and have purchased rubber boots for slogging around in the mud. Lots of rain means no sanding, no varnishing, no working outside. Plus, we can't work inside because we are trying to live in there at the same time. We have gone to the movies several times, read lots of books, and basically hibernated for several weeks.
 
The mud got worse after this picture. It was so depressing I didn't bother taking a picture of it. The mud got so bad that one day I remarked that I had seen cleaner pig sty's when I was a kid in 4H club.

 
 
Major enjoyed laying around inside while it rained.
 
 
 
It finally stopped raining and we had a forecast of 10 clear days. Look at that beautiful blue sky! Directv must have figured out that we don't have a tv anymore. I think they were trying to bring service to us :)
 

 
 
Our friend John Goodman came down to help put the fiberglass socks on the masts. He has been a big help to us and we really appreciate what he does. I am mostly unskilled labor so it is good to have someone around to help who knows what he is doing.
 
After fiberglassing, the masts will be sanded and varnished. I want the wood look for the masts so I am hoping they will look good with varnish on them. If not, I will have to paint them. They were painted originally.
 
 
We needed to bend some wood for the cap rail so we rigged up a steamer. We put the wood into a section of pvc pipe, filled the pressure cooker with water and brought it to a boil over our camp stove. The little hose leading from the pressure cooker to the pvc pipe fed steam into the pipe.
 


After a couple of hours, we took the wood out. I would like to say our steaming project was a success but it wasn't. We were, however, able to get the cap rail bent and attached without splitting. So maybe it helped (some).
 
 
 
 
 


2 comments:

  1. I tried to steam using a dryer vent hose and a camp stove... my project didn't work. :)

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    1. Yeah, I felt like Wiley Coyote in the Roadrunner cartoons, trying yet another product from Acme that works (in theory).

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