Warm Weather on Button Bay and the snow is almost gone!

This past week has been un-seasonally warm and I have been working on finishing my varnish work on the pieces I removed from the skiff. Things have been going well and my brightwork has been inproving, But still have stuff in my work, oh well. I am finishing one of the biggest pieces, the front bench seat back. THis one is challenging because of its size. I tried the roll and tipe method that many use. THis method is definatly faster but I still find I get better results with just the brush. I have not learned the best method to load a foam roller. Her e is some pic's I took after the last coat of varnish was applied.



On another front since the weather is getting better is working on my engine stringers. My boat originally came with a 6 cyl but the original owner changed the power plant to a v-8 to get the skiff to go faster. He said it did not improve anything. I have located the correct Chris Craft motor and will go back to the 6 cyl. Since the v-8 mounted differently I have been removing threaded rod and rotted dowel rods to get thes tringer ready for new dowel rods and on the startbard stringer I need to take 1 inch off the top to deal with some surface rot. AS you see below I have drilled out the sections and now have CPES in the holes trying to stabilize the stringers before they are doweled. Once the CPES drys up I will route off the top of the starboard stringer then dowel that piece before I lay in its new top. It will be glued and screwed. A side note on material cost is that they have sky rocked and I believe it will get worse. What scares me other than the economy hitting hard times is the challenge of finishing this skiff before I cant affoard ot work on it anymore.



The next thing to tackle is making an engine box. I bought the African Mahogany Lumber All I need left is the Mahogany plywood for the sides. I am going to get new Marine Fir plywood for the floors. The original flooring has been cut for the v-8. Well more to come tomorrow or when ever.