Copper Grommet Blanks
Predicting an actual launch date seems all but impossible. I’ve given up on guessing, as apparently I have no idea how long it takes to do these things. All I can do is keep working, knowing that one day they’ll be done, and that day is getting closer.
That said, we’re heading to the coast in late August. We’ll spend a week with my folks on one of the sea islands where they live outside Beaufort, South Carolina. As I described in an earlier post, it’s a fascinating place to explore, both by land and by water. Given the unbearably slow pace at which I seem to work, chances are slim one of these boats will be ready in time, but I’m going to try.
With that in mind, I’ve been doing at least a little work every night, and putting in long weekends, leaving little time to post progress updates. Things are moving steadily, but the posts will come in flurries and spurts.
Last week, all the copper grommet fairleads were installed – all 94 of them. About a third are fairleads for control lines. The rest are tie-down points for oars and equipment, for the spars when stored inside for trailering, bungie cords hatch covers hold-downs, plus a few extra. The plans called for 1/2” beams, but I used all 3/4” – which is a good thing, now that they’re shot through will holes.
It took two days to put them all in. After drilling, all the holes were sealed inside with epoxy to prevent water from entering and getting trapped. The outside will be sealed soon, too. A few split going in, due to inconsistent thickness in the copper, and had to be replaced, but other than the tedium of doing so many it went well. It will be worth it later, as they’ll come in very handy every time we take the boats out.
The interiors have been cleaned and covered in plastic in advance of all the epoxy work underway, with much more to come very soon.
