Ship's Log

My thanks to Steve Jackson, Aaron Willis, Alison Pollock, Mark Roberts, Alan Creason, Jason Koch, Mark Yirka, and everyone who thought it was cool to build a sailboat.

Tools - March- Bosch 18V cordless drill - $100, 4" Bench Vice - $35  April- Delta Table Saw - $300  May- 12" Craftsman Band Saw - $270, Porter Cable 3x21 Belt Sander - $179  June- ShopVac $40   July- Bosch 6" Random Orbital Sander - $150

April 1 - Started Boathouse- Ended up with a Pole Barn design, started with a hoop type greenhouse in mind!  Changed location, size and design many times...

May 2 - Finishing the roof on both sides of building.  Dave Montgomery gives me his 16' Comet.

May 4 - Finishing the floor- leveling, framing and laying the 23/32 exterior plywood

May 10 - Began stripping fiberglass from Comet.

May 17 - Alan came over to dig 125' of trench from the house back to the shed for power, phone and water lines. Used rental trencher.

May 24 - Buried 6-pair direct bury phone line, #10 AWG outdoor feeder cable, and 1/2" PVC water line

May 27 - Connected the #10 feeder cable to provide 30 amps to the boat shed.  Removed Centerboard Trunk from Comet.

June 1 - Finished installing outlets, lighting and ceiling fan.   Now I can work all night! 

June 2 - Moved the Comet into the boat shed   Official boathouse opening day (well, night...)

June 6 - Jason came over to connect up my 6-pair phone cable.   Finished stripping all fiberglass from Comet, removing rotted ribs.

June 7 - Added shelving and pegboard to organize things in the shop.  Removing old bedding compound from between planks.

June 8 - Added 2x6 joists to the overhead of the boathouse to suspend and roll the boat over using block and tackle

June 10 - Picked up unseasoned oak for ribs.  Discovered cut-to-order sawmill across from State Fairgrounds 

As of June 10th, my startup expenses seem to be largely behind me.  I total them here:

For Boat Shed:   ~$1500 includes power, phone, water, lighting, all lumber, roofing and flooring material. I see only maybe another $100 to be spent on this in the future- security cam, web cam, etc.   Expenses like the steam generator will go toward Boat Supplies.

For Hand and Power Tools:  ~$1000   still need planes, clamps, etc. maybe another $200

For Boat Supplies:  ~ $700.   Resin, veneer, wood, paint stripper, sandpaper etc. Some things will go toward other boat projects.
(I guess about $600 went just for the Comet.  Still need to buy some fittings.   So maybe another $150)

Estimate of hours to date:  God only knows!!!  Feels like a lot of time spent imagining...er, I mean in the design phase... About 20 just on this website.

Now, to the business of building sailboats !

June 11 - Obtained original 1937 plans for wooden Comet sailboat from Mark Yirka (score!!!) 

June 13 - Built steam generator for bending ribs. ($2 at the junk yard for a 5 gallon air pressure tank that just fits inside my grill.   Hose to 10' PVC pipe) Takes about an hour to get steam. Then steam ribs for another 1 1/2 hours, and bend to mold made from plans.   Stripped much inboard paint.

June 16 - Inserted new ribs. Added 4 new oak braces for deck around cockpit, 2 more under foredeck for support.

June 21 - Saved portion of old centerboard trunk bearing the hull number.  Mated this with new mahogany- see pics.   Installed new trunk

June 30 - Applied epoxy to each plank inside to seal wood. Applied thickened epoxy to gaps between planks from outside. Filled up larger gaps with cedar strips first.  Applied smoothing coat of epoxy to hull.  Can't believe how good it looks- like a fiberglass boat! 

July 6 - Hull has been smoothed and ready for fiberglass cloth.  I was disappointed that the glass cloth didn't become clear and smooth when epoxy was applied.  Added 2nd coat of thickened epoxy and will sand smooth for paint when I get my random orbital sander. I would skip this step if I did it again.  Cloth was not needed- only added weight and expense.

July 10 - Rough cut teak to see how it will look.  I might have chosen mahogany or cedar for the deck- more red in those woods.  Applied sand colored polyeurathane inside cockpit.  Decided on hull color- Pettit makes a Teal Blue polyeurathane that looks deep and just right for a small boat hull.  Ordered 2 quarts from Westport marina on Lake Champlain- $21/qt.   Waiting for orbital sander to arrive to finish smoothing hull.  Decided on the name this weekend.  Borrowing from my friends at Mercy Ships, I'll name her Anastasis.  Bought new mainsheet ratchet block, jib and main swivel base cam cleats, and halyard clam cleats. $200 from Chris at Annapolis Performance Sailing.

July 21 - Teak is finished. Now sanding the hull for final preparation for paint. The fiberglass was so rough it required much more work- a disappointment in that it will take a bunch of hours of sanding and re-applying epoxy to get it to a glassy finish.  I had hoped I'd get that when I first applied the glass cloth.  Bought Interlux Dark Blue for the hull- Teal was too light.

August 15 - Over the last month I've been preparing the hull for final finish coats of primer and paint- when you use a dark shiny color, every imperfection shows.  I've also applied several coats of varnish to the deck.  The matte finish has really brought it up to standard- appearance-wise.   This weekend we'll have a hull painting party and celebrate the last few details getting finished.  Plan to launch next week!!

September 13 - Relaunched boat today- first time in the water since 1992!!  Applied name lettering to hull: "Anastasis"  Marked waterline and found leak around centerboard.  Repaired leak.  Hopefully, this is the last of that problem.