I last posted in February and it’s now July. While I haven’t been posting to the blog, Sam and I have been busy backyard boatbuilding the dory we started over two years ago! My last picture of Elizabeth Lynn showed her in a state of hibernation, all wrapped up and snuggled in the snow. As I write this post now, it’s 75 degrees outside. Quite the change. Life has a funny way of getting by you and before you know it, a few days turns into a few months. Having young kids, my wife and I stay extremely busy, so I’d like to say I have an excuse for not posting for five months. Really, though, it’s more likely laziness. I digress.
The snow did finally melt here in upstate New York. After the thaw, Samantha and I were able to get the boat out and start working again. As I mentioned in the last post, we stopped working on the turtledecks and they were the first place we needed to start with.
Some of our previous work had come apart over the winter. A few of the strips that we had applied over the rear turtleneck had separated from the sides of the boat. I think the strips were too thick and they were under tremendous stress when bent and epoxied in place. Sam and I made a valiant attempt to reattach the strips, but they were too tough to bend and keep affixed. So we ended up ripping up the few strips we had done and started over.
I’ll update the turtledeck section of the build log with the details of finishing the turtledecks and you can see how they turned out there. They aren’t perfect, but after a date with some 80 grit sandpaper, Sam and I were able to make them smooth, curvy, and proportionate to the fine lines of the boat. Check it out!
I have high hopes that I’ll be posting more often over the coming weeks with the progress of our backyard dory boatbuilding and updating the build pages as I complete the various tasks to bring Elizabeth Lynn to life. Please subscribe to my email updates if you haven’t already so you’ll be the first to know that I’ve posted a progress update! Stay tuned for more!