Ruth here:

“In all sense of the word. Summer has finally arrived and we are seeing some of the same weather we did last year. We got lucky and from May until now it has been mild, high 70’s and mid 80’s. This whole last week, however, has been mid to high 90’s with a few hours of each day kissing 100 degrees. Garrett has stuck to his plan of getting 5 bottom planks on a day. We have estimated it will take about 60 planks per side. He started midships at worked aft to the transom and the Port side has all those planks done, 46 planks!

The last group of planks on her tail end are only 3 inches wide versus the 5.5in width of the rest. The very last plank will need to be steamed. There is just a little too much of a twist to manually pull that plank in. Garrett has constructed a steam box out of plywood and using a single burner below it and some hosing connecting the pot of water, to transport the steam, to the box with our tiny plank inside. The box needs a little tweaking still so I’ll get better pictures to illustrate this soon.                                   

I’m so excited to see the bilge!!!

In between planking the bottom we are also working on the deck. This week as been a bit too hot to be working that high up in the shed so we’ve been focused more on planking but here are a few pics of what we’ve got so far. Awesome!!!

Can’t you just picture her getting on a mean lean crushing waves!

The Starboard side is slowly catching up to Port. Another 2 full days and Starboard will be planked up to the transom as well! 2 full HOT days! Send your cold thoughts to Garrett 🙂 “

Cheers,

R