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 be good and solid and able to handle the loads from the Asym. it will be mounted to the deck sitting on two Ipe blocks and thru-bolted with two square U-bolts set into grooves cut into the bowsprit.

We had a week of 60 to 70 degree weather here in seattle this last month, and I took advantage of it and started the varnish work.

Here yo ucan see a small fraction of the amazing space that I have at the CWB to stretch out into. Being able to spread all the floorboards out onto sawhorses meant that I could swing by once a day and in about an hour get a cost of varnish on all of them. They are done now, and have probably between 15-20 coats on them. i basically varnished them till I lost track of how many coats i had o nthem, then sanded, varnished four coats, then sanded and varnished another four coats.

the mahogany benches are out being varnished by a friend- she offered to finish them as she’s pretty much a varnish expert and had a number of projects already underway and when she offered, I really couldn’t refuse.

I’ve also pretty much finished the cockpit combing on the boat so I should be able to start painting once it gets a little warmer and a little less rainy.

Since the floorboards are now done and waiting for install, i’ve opened up work on the mast. I’ve removed all the hardware so i can effect repairs and re-varnish it. here’s a shot of what needed to be fixed.

The hollow mast had a few of the glue joints near the step end fail for a few feet. after much consideration, I came up with a plan to fix this, and executed it.

First, I drilled a series of 1/16″ holes about 1/2 inch apart and about 1/4″ deep along the separated area. then, i tapped my chisels into the crack.

Once that was done, I mixed up a batch of epoxy, and injectd it into the holes with a syringe, really injecting and squeezing it in there. This filled up the crack to the point that it was oozing out.

Then, the chisels were removed and it was clamped together.

Once the epoxy had hardened a bit, but while still green, I scraped off the excess with a sharp chisel. once it totally hardened, I sanded of the excess.

This really seemed to work well, so a simiar technique was used on the step end where some of the glue joints looked a little suspicious. I also used thckened epoxy to fill in where this mast had a hinge arangement to help with stepping on the boat it was previously fit to.

after that, the mast was hung from the rafters of the building on thin line so i could sand it to prep for new varnish.

I also took the time to sand the boom and the tiller I’ll be using. of course, once it was sanded, i noticed the tiller is bent.

Now i have to decide if i plan to use it, or fabricate a replacement. Or maybe un-bend it?

In R2AK news, I decided to withdraw my application. I coudl probably get the boat done, but there’s no way i could get the testing and shakedown trips done in the time remaining, nor could I get to know the boat as well as I’d like before the race.

It’s a bummer, but it’s the prudent thing to do.