So if you have ever had a small boat with a cabin, you know how the cabin quickly becomes a dumping ground. Stuff ends up in piles, pushed around while you’re trying to find things. adding shelving or compartments detracts from the versatility of the space, and stuff all over makes finding things hard and Read More…

Well, Today I made some steps towards finishing the running rigging. I had to do some interesting bits of rope work I thought I’d share. I had to make up the jib cars, their adjustment lines, and the tricky, double reverse tapered jib line.  Fortunately, I remembered to take lots of pictures, so I can walk Read More…

So I managed to sell my 1965 Vespa 90; selling it got me the cash for some big-ticket items I had been needing. I’m happy to say that I now have all the ports installed. I also picked up this big box of custom rigging from Fisheries Supply. It’s a full set of standing rigging Read More…

We’ve had rain for the past week or so here in Seattle, so I took advantage of the now enclosed cabin and installed the centerboard winch. These old Lightnings use an interesting setup to gain the mechanical advantage needed to lift the honkin big swing centerboard keel. It’s a winch, but not your typical sailboat Read More…

It’s getting to that point where all I seem to be doing is little things, but these little things look huge as far as progress towards finishing. Last year, I’d spend two weeks doing carpentry and the boat would still look roughly the same; now I spend an afternoon on little things and it just Read More…

So, today I installed the Ipe rubrail down both sides of the boat. I had been hesitant to tackle this solo, as the thought of wrangling a 20 foot rubrail into position by myself self gave me pause. But, after looking at the problem from many angles, I came up with a solution. First, i Read More…

Well, With the exception of the rudder, the paint is done. Huge step forward, as it now looks like I’ve actually accomplished something. I started out with Petit EZ-poxy one part polyurethane. I decided to use their ‘Performance enhancer’; basically it’s an isocyanate catalyst that is supposed to improve gloss and durability. You add a Read More…

A few weeks back I had started on my tiller/rudder combination, and after sanding and cleaning up the tiller I had chosen to use, I realized it was bent. I immediately thought that just putting it in a steam box would straighten it up, as it looked like this was storage damage adn that it Read More…

I’ve been steadily chugging forward, and making significant headway. I got the boat in primer. Of course, once I sanded it it quickly became apparent how much fairing I had missed. So, I decided that I was going to have to skim coat the hull sides with fairing compound, sand it, and re-apply the hi-build Read More…

The Bowsprit mounting is progressing; the back up under the foredeck is about half done. I just need to add a little more plywood so that the forward mount is tied into the side of the boat, the deck, and the deck beam and the backup for the stem fitting. once that is done, it should Read More…

Whew. We’ve moved and finally have internet on our new liveaboard so I can finally post an update. The Lady Jane now has taken up residence in the yard at the Northlake workshop of the Center for Wooden Boats. I’m truly happy for their support and for them accommodating me and making it possible to Read More…

So, in three weeks, we move on to the Monsoon as liveaboards, and I won’t have a garage to work in. Right now, it looks like I’ll be finishing up the Lady Jane at the Center for Wooden Boats‘ northlake shop. Unfortunatly, I’ll be working on it outdoors, so i’m in a race against the Read More…

When we last left off, I had just gotten the Lady Jane back into the garage after getting the bottom done right on the tail end of the last of the good weather we had for outdoor work here in the Pacific Northwest. I haven’t been doing many updates, but not due to lack of Read More…

there’s been not alot of posting, but alot of progress nonetheless So to recap: I did a solvent wipe of the entire bottom with brushing thinner. I decided to go with pettit ‘Black Widow’. This is a Hard bottom paint, a non ablative. it’s loaded with stuff to make it polishable and slippery. And spiders, Read More…

So, this picture doesn’t look much different than the last one I posted. The difference is that I’ve refastened the bottom. Something like 350 brass screws pulled, the holes drilled larger, and the screws replaced with slightly larger and longer silicon bronze screws. this was complicated by the fact that each screw head had been Read More…

Tons of progress. First, I hauled out the benches for the boat. Originally, the Lady Jane had a set of full wraparound mahogany benches. I wanted to reuse them for the now much smaller cockpit, but I needed to trim them down, and open up the back to make space for the hatch I added Read More…

So over the course of yesterday and today I laid out and cut the front panel for the cabin on the Lady Jane. This was a tricky bit of work, as it was set at an angle, intersecting a curve on the top and bottom of the piece and the two triangles at the side. Read More…

Ton of progress this week. To start things off, I ended up having to replace two more ribs. thought I had been done with that, but the more I moved about in the boat the more it became apparent two more of the midships ribs were not up to snuff. So a step back, but Read More…

Today went well. 11 pieces got installed! The mast step and centerboard trunk to deck tie-in is all done, and everything under the foredeck is done. I just need to fit the winch to lift the board. In that shot you can see that my scope of work expanded, again. you see, there was an Read More…

The hits keep on coming! big progress today on the 4th of July. It was a four pieces of wood day. Two big, and two small. The two small pieces were the backups for the traveler/bridle. I also spaced these so that if I later wanted to install an autopilot I’ll already have the backup Read More…

I’ve been looking for a replacement stemhead fitting for the Lady Jane. As it came to me, the boat had a loosely held on amalgum of hardware hanging out of a hole in the deck. It was comprozed of a worn bronze bow loop, two bent up and modified stainless steel tangs, and a brass Read More…

So, I’m in better spirits after making much progress on the Lady Jane.

Well, last weekend I had a few setbacks on the progress on getting the Lady Jane done. I began the day by trying to finish off removing misc hardware and scraping the interior paint. Previously i had limited my paint removal efforts to the bottom of the boat and the areas i nmeeded to to Read More…

Today, I finished the rib replacement. a total of six half-ribs have been replaced. The aft, full width rib I had hoped to get in as one piece, but I ended up doing it as two halves. The ‘how to build a lightning’ book from the international class association said that doing it in one Read More…

The paint on the Lady Jane was in rough shape. Here’s a shot. Coming off in flakes, and generally just a mess. I have made significant progress. I had been scraping the paint, but a few weeks ago, i noticed something else. See, wooden boats of this style of construction (carvel planked) are sensitive to Read More…

It’s been a while since an update, but I have been working on making progress on the Lady Jane I had to close my scooter shop and reconfigure the garage to get the hull in there. It was quite the ordeal, but I managed to get this done the middle of January. The next step Read More…