Week 5: Finishing Touches on the Interior

In last week’s post, I skimmed over the technical details of the boat build, focusing on the logistical difficulties of construction. I’ll focus on the progress I’ve made this week in this post:

Over the last two weeks, the most obvious progress has been the interior being painted. I put down four coats of exterior topside paint over the interior and then one coat of gritty paint on the floor and garboard. I left some wooden components exposed. 

After painting, I installed the gunwale. The gunwale is a strip of wood that runs along the inside edge of the boat from end to end. It provides structural support and will be paired with a rubrail later, which goes on the exterior edge. It was somewhat complicated to install because it required bending the wood. To do so, I used trusty Harbor Freight clamps and temporary screws. 

I also screwed in the remaining seat supports, fitted the seats, and varnished them all with 4 coats.

Last night was the most exciting moment of progress so far: I flipped the boat upside down. I tied four ratchet straps to the rafters and hoisted it in the air. I then removed the wooden frame it was resting on. I then slowly started pushing one side of it up. Once it got to around thirty degrees, I called in my dad. I would jolt into the bottom edge, and my dad would push up on the other. We slowly lowered it down flat and then put it back on the cradle. 

So, my next couple of posts will focus on the underside… fiberglassing, painting, etc.