Fitout

Fitout is simple for Seapod. Two thwarts and four knees. It should not take too long and did not really - but all the other small clean up jobs, fairing the sheer line (critical), installing drain plugs, fitting chainplates, shaping the stemhead(s), installing centre board case packers etc. mean that it takes a week.

The thwart risers go in without problems - parallel to the inwhale seemed best when they clamped in place. The thwarts get fitted and thinned (underneath) - an improvement over the thick chunky look I hope.

Fairing the gunwhale seems to take a huge amount of time and effort. The grain is tough (the last long bit of oak available means that I can’t be fussy) and problems with perspective exercise my brain. The job will have to be finished once I get the boat out of the corner as can’t really see the boat from all angles. The basic issue, and it is a common one, is that the width of the sheer strake appears different as you walk round the boat. From some angles the sheer strake seems to have a hard spot, from most it is clean. Selectively fairing the underside of the gunwhale will remove shadows and probably sort most of it out - but I need to get a clean view of the boat to do this - so eventually give up and leave it until later.

The floors alongside the centreboard case need packers. Cutting, fitting and glueing these is fiddly and time consuming.

The stemhead, by contrast, is a bit of fun with a shoulder plane. I go for a simple domed shape to accentuate the laminations.

By this time it is Friday - and I have to fit the knees. A day’s work as it turns out due to lots of side track issues. Cake for Justin’s (new) daughter, general panic about Epifanes marine primers that may or may not be applicable on top of epoxy, a BBA visitor - John from Maine, who owns a Jimmy Steele Peapod and was delighted to see a Peapod being built in the UK.. you get the idea. Anyway, despite all this, with the copious application of chalk and lots of fiddling- by Friday night I have all four of them….

They will be bolted through the thwarts with machine screws and screwed into the timbers against which they lodge. This approach means that the knees, thwarts and risers can all be easily removed for re-finishing the interior.

So - at the end of all this I am ready for finishing. Departure for Beale Park is next Thursday - so this will be very basic, sand and seal the interior and sand and prime the exterior. I tear down the building frame and timber rack in order to clean out the corner and partition off a ‘clean’ room.