42.) Planking ComPLETE. Morale Gets Boost

One of the guys in our professional woodworking shop asked me a rather insulting question the other day: "Does your client ever complain about how long the boat project is taking?"

My response: "Yes, HE does--every night while I am lying in bed in the dark. That's because HE is me."

Undertaking a project like this can be super frustrating even without any heckling from the peanut gallery. There already have been many times when I wondered whether I was in my right mind to attempt this at all.

A lot of people who get excited about boat restoration give up midstream, when they realize after a year or two that they still have a year or two left. Hearing about these surrenders used to surprise me. Now I am surprised every time I open Wooden Boat magazine and see how many people actually hung on until the end.

For me, the only way to get through this type of marathon (while retaining what I define as sanity), is to set short-term achievable goals and to take them one at a time. For the past several weeks, my focus has been on planking the interior of the boat. And now that I have finished that part of the job, I'll take a moment to pat myself on the back of my Jackson Hole t-shirt for this small victory.  

Pause.

Whoopie! Hooray!

Pause.

This approach, along with my new Beats headphones, helps me keep up my morale.  

Now for the photographic proof:

Ok, I still have some sanding to do. And I need to fill a few small gaps between the planks with epoxy. But I am pretty pleased that I can begin to move on to a new phase of the restoration.

I'm also super glad I made the planks extra thick because they needed even more sanding than I expected. I didn't actually burn through in any spots but I came dangerously close in two small places.

When I showed my wife the middle picture above on my iPhone, she said: "Oh, what a nice wooden spoon!"  I didn't know what to think of that at first, but I choose to believe she was complimenting the beautiful mahogany, the symmetrical shape of the IC, and my fine craftsmanship. Does sort of look like a spoon, though.

Next milestones:  

1.) Completing the repair of the keelson and then strengthening it.

2.) Sheathing the interior of the boat with a transparent layer of fiberglass and epoxy.

3.) Building and installing the rails and decks

4.) Making and installing the major interior components: bulkhead, centerboard trunk, partners, and rear seat.

That order may change, but I'll be proceeding one step at a time.