Once we were in the groove we were unstoppable. We portioned the cabin ceiling in 3 stages. Day one started working from the port side of the companion way out. This ended up taking a few days but we found our rhythm soon enough.
Practically finished stage 2, working from the starboard side of the companion way out, in one full day!
Stage 3 left the center of the deck to be filled in. In this stage we also decided the placement of the main salon hatch.
Garrett worked hard on deck fastening each strip down and trimming them to the shape of the cabin while Hoffa and I were outside the shed diligently rounding the corners of every plank and planning down any burns left behind by the table saw.
We were lucky enough to find a few really nice days. Even managing to earn ourselves a little sunburn! God, that felt good. We forgot how quick we move when the sun is shining. I think all three of us thrive off of solar energy.
Without any ports in the side walls it’s a little hard to capture on film exactly how beautiful the cedar looks from down below. We all stared up for a very long time that day. All that was left was to find just the right piece to fill in the ceiling “spine.” Garrett pulled out a wonderful piece of fir, surprisingly one we picked up from Home Depot, with a mix of grain from VG to flat sawn. We’re thinking we’ll stain the “spine plank” a little darker to closer match the western red beams.
Next up is laying down plywood and more glassing! It’s been really nice getting to mix in a bit of finish work with the raw construction of the boat. It means we are getting that much closer to completing the dream and living out the next from the water!
Cheers All!
Thanks for following 🙂
~Ruthie
Salt & Tar 
The cedar looks awesome!
You’re on your way to owning a beautiful boat.
Keep on keeping on.
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What plans are you using ? Love the info. Building my own boat for our canals in England.
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We worked with George Buehler and he helped redesign the Button. You can read a bit about the plans on his website
Happy building 🙂
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That cedar looks marvelous!
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Very nice job, keep up the great work
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looking good guys, I just bought 830 board feet of white oak and 160 of Larch (thats our boat building wood on the east coast) for the sea dreamer project. We have large populations of Amish and Mennonite communities in upstate NY and they frequently have saw mill operations. You guys are way ahead of me but i’m watching closely as your boat is so similar to mine. George put up my redesigned 41′ duck on his website and we emailed back and forth about your project and design. Keep it up, so cool to watch and I’m learning a lot from you both.
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Thanks Scott, good luck to you as well! We feel your dilemma with balancing life outside of boatbuilding. You’re absolutely right about it’s supposed to be fun! Every now and then Garrett needs that reminder so he doesn’t work himself to the grave before he finishes the damn thing haha The trailer you carted your lumber on is sweet! Buehler is so funny and easy to work with. Feel free to email anytime 🙂 Garrett’s the knowledge bearer and doesn’t often come into town but I’ll pass on any questions
R
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Just heard about Garrett’s back problems. Hope he’s doing well now. Invest in a back brace. You can get a good one for $50-100. Don’t buy anything cheaper than that. Wear it whenever you’re out of bed for 3 months then whenever you’re working on the boat thereafter. It’s worth the money to save yourself the pain and delays of being laid up again.
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Thanks Nate!
His sister kindly passed on her old one which is more like a back corset! The issue is getting him to wear it haha This morning, however, he put it on since he was planing the topsides and we are borrowing one from a neighbor most likely from the 70’s and weighs about 30lbs it seems. It’s a work in progress…
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