No, the V28 isn't ready to launch (quite), but I did manage to be on the water in a boat i built this last weekend.

If you remember, some time back Dane and I made a (rather rough) Origami Dinghy. We had a pretty good time with the build, but never really got to use it.

Collateral Damage

Not sure if you can guess from the picture above, but I have a new trailer!

Found a nice used trailer at a great price on craigslist.com. Happened to be near my in-law's house, so we combined a quick visit with a purchase trip and returned with a trailer.

Stop-by-step been making a little progress. Didn't have time with the "real job" (or maybe that should just be the "paying job") this week, but did finish a lot of the head (bathroom) walls and doorway.

I had the side wall on for a while, but finally got the forward wall cut to shape and in place. It was a little trickier since it had to follow the cabin and hull sidewall profile. Not perfect, but with a little caulk it will be fine. Its not structural anyhow, just something to give some privacy.

Here in the southeast US, we have had a pretty severe drought for several years. Lots of talk of global warming, etc.

Well, I now know the real cause of the drought - it's my boat.

The entire time I was building the hull, it was either under cover, or was in a condition that it really didn't matter if it rained on it. For that entire time, we had drought and very, very little rain.

For a while the boat has been reasonably well closed up. It has windows, doors, covers, a roof... and leaks. Lots of leaks.

If I had a heavy rain, it would be full of water. Not as full as if it didn't have a roof, but a really surprising amount. This has been a source of more than a little annoyance, and some concern. if nothing else, its not good for all that nice wood to be soaking in water.

This leads to me having to pump things out, etc. A real pain.

Boatbuilding has its ups and downs, I find. Recently I've had a run of "down", but with this post, I finally had a nice string of ups!

First off, I managed to rework my window catches. I've gone through several options and wound up going with an idea I'm pretty sure I got from Brad Indicott of the Leah Gent V39 build.

He made a nicer set than mine, but the idea is the same. Take a brass rod, fasten one end in an eye screw on the window and on the other end have a hole for the rod to hook in. This will latch the window open a certain distance.

Life intruded the past week or so and I haven't gotten to work on the boat much. That is one of the more frustrating parts of boatbuilding as a hobby... when you are ready to work, sometimes you can't. Weather, lack of materials and most often (for me, at least) lack of time keeps you from it. But I did have a chance to try my rubrail mounting method.

Snow in June?

Snow in June (on a 90 degree day)??? Well, not really, it's PVC plastic. More on that later.

Since our window hanging activities, we have moved on to doors and tables.

After much figuring and scheming, I think I came up with a table/bed design that will work out well.

After getting the routing finished (see my previous entry), I was able to start getting the forward windows put together. This finishes up all the "normal" full size windows.

Windows

Working on the forward window frames tonight, I used my "new to me" router table (with attached old router) for the first time.

Let me assure you, when using power tools isn't really the best time to get a surprise by said tool.