Friday, March 25, 2016

Busy Couple of Weeks

 It's been a busy couple of weeks here. My father and I are building a boat, I'm getting the Lido ready for the season and all signs are pointing to an early spring. Life is good in the rocky mountain west.
 We will start with the Lido. At the end of sailing season last I managed to loose one of the spreaders. No big deal, called up DoubleWave and ordered a new one. During the winter and and a subsequent house move the spreader was misplaced. So I have that to order. I also ordered a new to me sail from Minty's Yacht Surplus. It's of the type used at the Orange Coast College on their fleets of Lido's with a nice masthead float. The price was awesome so I picked it up. Tried to raise it a few days ago, no dice. There was too much friction at the mast head. So I'll be drilling out the rivets and sending the whole mast head and halyard to DW to have it reconditioned for the season. Save that she's ready to go.
 For the last few weeks my father and I have begun work on a Piccup pram. It's great working indoors and making some sawdust. The weather has been mighty variable but working in a heated garage it is the least of our worries. I apologize for the lack of pictures but I've been busy building a boat. But here is a list and our most recent pictures!
  • We've been using DWX Epoxy from Duckworks and it has been great! The workshop hovers around 60f and it cures overnight if you sleep late. The low order and slow hardener has made it a joy to work with. Mixes up well and dries clear. I would recommend it to anyone who is building boats. Great stuff
  • The plans and written directions were helped greatly by the fact I have a library of "modern" beginning boat building books and access to other builds of Piccups on Facebook. Without these the process would have been much more difficult for a novice. It is my opinion a new comprehensive set of directions are needed with photos and no reference to outside sources for how the build progresses. 
  • We will be adding a mizzen to the boat to aid in manners while reefing and hove to. I'm not the first to do so so that will help. 
  • Sold the 7/11. Just did not have time to make it the boat it could be. But a nice fellow who plans to give his kids a sailing boat bought it so it's in good hands.

SV Lazy Shamrock. The Lazy Shamrock is the Maxwell family brand.

It's amazing how big the boat is turning out.

This is a very beefy mast step. Inspired by Paul Moffit's built of Serenity.

Next up is interior seams. Can't wait!