This has been one messy project! We’ve managed to get tar everywhere and even a little on the boat. Now to clarify, the tar is purely to bed the sheathing planks not to be our bottom protection. This is where the next step in the sheathing process comes in: planning and sanding everything down to bare wood.

We matched the port side to starboard and have every plank up except for where the boat stands are. As you can see on the starboard side Garrett’s already started to plane the planks.

BEFORE            AFTER

While Garrett’s planning and sanding I’m filling the one million screw holes with thickened epoxy. Once all holes are covered and the wood sanded down we’ll be ready for real bottom paint. We are thinking, with the help of other’s thoughts, that we’ll do a coat or two of thinned bottom paint to penetrate the planks then finish with 3 to 4 coats of full strength anti-fouling bottom paint.

Before that painting can happen we have to have the yard move the stands. We have about 20 planks on each side still to do.

This has been one hell of a job…especially on Garrett’s back. What good timing!!! For a chiropractor to appear. One nice thing about people knowing where we are is getting to meet all of our followers. We’ve met boatbuilders, doctors, world travelers, new boat owners, and people who know nothing about boats but love to watch Garrett and I work. I, for one, had no idea how many people would be interested in our little-big project! Thank you to all of you for your support. It has been extremely positive and heart warming. Both Garrett and I have never been attached to the internet world so I apologize that we’re often late in responding back to you but I try my best to write back and keep you informed when I can. We are working so hard and are so so close to launching this endeavor. Bottom paint is right around the corner and the water only a little further!