The day began with a simple goal, a simple task, building the second slide stand on the port side. Garrett didn’t stop there. Before I knew what was happening he was sawing the cradle floor away!

This is why I settle for ideas not plans because I never know what I’m going to get with this guy.

The slide stands on either side are to keep Rediviva from tipping over one way or another while we, using 4 jacks, lifted her up from the cradle. She has sat on this cradle since she was just a keelson, one timber compiled of 8 layers of 2X10’s. 

Tools needed:

1 sledge hammer

1 crowbar

4 aggressive hands

Here comes the fun part. It’s time. We really got our money’s worth with this plywood. We originally drew the lines of the boat on it in the lofting process, built a separate working floor with it, constructed the frames on it, made an entire boat atop it, we even built an outhouse. Ripping it all up, tearing it down, and burning the remains is not mournful but liberating. Cleaning up the property and moving out is beyond exciting, we’re ecstatic!

After most of the floor was removed and the framing on the sides were gone the jacks went to work.

The idea is to lift the boat just enough to get the weight off the cradle and the remaining scraps of ply underneath. As the boat lifted so did the cradle; relieved of its burden. We had to raise the boat about 3/4’s of an inch before we could wiggle the broken bits of plywood. 3/4’s of an inch… big deal… well when you’re lifting a thing that weighs about 10 tons and you’ve spent the last 2.5 years of your life devoted to building that thing while most young 20 somethings are not building a 35ft wooden boat alone in the woods it feels a little bit like a big deal. You hear loud cracks and crunching wood. Wait! Was that the boat!?!? Trying to stay light hearted about the whole ordeal I laughed every time Garrett just about jumped out of his skin at the sound each “POP.”      Can you blame him though?

Before we knew it, racing the sun a bit, the moment came to let the SAWZALL into the ring. A tool appropriately named for the task; to saw all that was left. Garrett alternated beams then cubed them up to use for blocking under the keel. In order to get the hydraulic truck in we can’t have any blocking/supports wider than the keel its self.

As the sun set behind the forest line the only thing left to do is tidying up the debris and we’ve got 5 weeks to do that

We’re gettin’ out of here!

Cheers all!

R&G

ALRIGHTY Y’ALL MARK YOUR CALANDARS!

WE HAVE OUR TRUCK OUT DATE SET AND IT’S TIME TO LAY THE TOOLS DOWN

…FOR A MOMENT ANY WAY. WE ARE SO EXCITED TO BE MOVING! IT FEELS NORMAL FOR US. TRAVELING IS HOME. IT HAS BEEN SO CRAZY HOT THE LAST FEW WEEKS, IN THE 100’S, AND THEN THIS MORNING 66 AND RAIN. OK, SO… JUST LIKE THAT THE WEATHER TRANSITIONS FROM SUMMER TO FALL. WE ARE NOT BUMBED EVEN IN THE SLIGHTEST TO BE SKIPPING OUT ON THE WINTER. BEAUTIFUL WHITE MOUNTAINS ARE GREAT FOR SKIING BUT NOT FOR THESE BOATBUILDERS. NAPA BOATYARD WILL ALLOW US TO KEEP WORKING THROUGH THE REMAINING MONTHS OF 2017 AND WELCOME 2018 WITH A SPLASH. OUR GOAL IS TO LAUCH NEXT SPRING. 3/4 OF THE WAY THERE, 3/4 OF THE WAY TO THE WATER, 3/4 OF THE WAY TO LIFE. 

MARK DOBBINS, YOU SAID IT RIGHT

V!VA RED!V!VA 

Bulwarks planked, rubrail on, and bottom coated. It seems now that every day we work she really looks more and more like a boat! She is ready to be trucked. Everything else can be done at the boatyard, or after we launch. I (Garrett) have decided that I am no longer going to push myself for the remaining time up here. We have a few loose ends to tie up, but as it is now we are leaving in September! We are going to sloooooooow down, catch our breath,  work on getting the property cleaned up, and packing everything. We will work on the boat when we feel like it. We will swim in the river when we feel like it…. The point is I finally see the light at the end of what has been an incredibly challenging undertaking, and I want to gather my strength for the final push. It’s pretty surreal making plans and setting dates with boatyards and trucking companies! It doesn’t feel real… It’s wild to go through everything that needs to be done before we launch in my head over and over, and realize that list is so small!  We plan to keep Rediviva  simple. No complex electrical system, gravity fed water, and basic rugged hardware. The most complex thing left to do before we launch is finish hooking up the motor. Having done it a few times already on previous boats I am not concerned about it. Everything else is just details, and as long as we keep chipping away she will be complete before we know it!

Wish us luck getting everything buttoned up out here! Very big changes are coming!

Garrett & Ruth

It’s perfect. I love doing more intricate painting where as Garrett is happy to get down with a roller and get it over with. Personally, I can’t stand rolling on paint. The feel of the brush, simple in your hand, is oddly satisfying. Learning how to make a straight, clean line without tape (because I also hate taping) using a shitty chip brush makes me feel complete.

I slowly cut in the waterline while Garrett ran around me like a mad man rolling on primer. Hoffa was away on a job so it was back to the basics and just the two of us. Garrett and I have an odd but harmonious work style. It’s about the only time I shut up. Few words are spoken and we each go about our tasks. Somehow we’ve found our opposite, filling in each others blanks.

^Everyday he looks more and more like a “normal” boatbuilder^

(CRAZY)

Garrett tackled the rudder in, I’m not kidding you, a single day. A breaker has flipped in a very awesome way. Noticing, all of a sudden, the sun is shinning and the the tar in the air smells sweet.

You’ve got the plans. The ruff stock. Shaped. Second layer. BINGO!

Glued together with epoxy and mechanically fastened. Ready for some steel strapping, pintles and gudgeons but we’ll have to find a welder first.

We did this old school. We built level “guides” or “slides” at the bow and stern on the waterline points given by our plans. We chose to raise the waterline 5 more inches knowing we are going to be a fully loaded cruising live-aboard.

Reid was still in town so we were able to scribe the waterline in one day! Reid was at one end of the line and I was on the other using weights to keep it taught. We started at the bow where the line touched our first bow point and Garrett marked it. Then we worked our way aft. Moving the bow end of the line further out and the stern end of the line further in marking each spot where the line touched the hull. This was how we were able to mark the curved line evenly.

The boat, how she sits now, is flat on her keel which is not how she’ll float. The bow will be much higher out of the water so her keel will be at more of an angle with the deeper end being at the stern. Her bowsprit will point high into the sky, her sheer exactly how Garrett envisioned!

Once we had enough marks on the hull Garrett used a batten to connect the dots. Carving the waterline into the hull with his pullsaw.

And can you believe it! Our lines on either side of the hull came out even! Port and Starboard actually match. Good team work guys!

All 36 bulwark stanchion posts are through bolted in. They are douglas fir with galvanized threaded rod epoxied inside and through bolted below decks bedded with PL Premium roof adhesive. We’ll wrap two planks around the posts, most likely we’ll use western red cedar and finish bright.

It was a group effort. Garrett cut all the fir and rod. Him and Hoffa epoxied the rod into the posts. Garrett drilled through the deck while Reid (his brother was in town so of corse he was put to work) cut the thread into the ends of the rod. Hoffa and I taped the posts and Garrett taped the deck off. I was on deck gooping up the base as well as the deck where the faces met while Hoffa was down below putting on a nut and washer then making the bond tight. We wrapped a batten around the posts to make sure they were turned in all alliance with the curve of the hull. And presto!

Next up we carve the waterline in and primer the topsides!!!!

Grinding bungs flush in preparation for bottom paint!

Reefing out the tar from the rabbet in preparation for caulking!

Final coat of deck paint!

Happy 4th everybody!

Rediviva crew

Summer is cooking!

Rediviva’s name is on a piece of paper sitting upon a US Coast Guard desk mixed in a stack of documents awaiting an officer’s glance. Who knows how tall this stack is? If it’s a messy or neat stack? But! She is on her way to becoming a legitimized recreational vessel. An ‘exploration unknown traveler to carry her salty gypsy crew to distant shores’ vessel; as we like to call her. The paper reads:

Owner: Garrett and Ruth Jolly

Builder: Garrett and Ruth Jolly

So in the meantime since we have “3-4 months,” so they say,of time to kill we’ll push our funds to the limit and keep working. More epoxy, CreoCoat, Primer, Rust-Oleum, PL Premium, and bolts but thankfully no lumber!

Every single bung hole is now filled!

(Epoxy mixed with sawdust)

With the summer heat ablaze and the shed removed the decks were starting to get pretty toasty! The original plan, which may still happen in the future, was to plank the deck with fir strips (gluing not screwing) but running short on patience, time, and money we’ve pressed forward and painted the decks instead for right now. Painting allowed us to protect the decks quick from the brutal UV, the wood doesn’t mind too much but the epoxy on the other hand…

We used a coarse textured deck-over paint first, then 2 coats of primer and sand, with the consistency just right we are ready for the almond color oil-based finish paint. Good and cheap ol’ Rust-Oleum brand.

While I tackled the rest of the bungs and Hoffa covered the deck Garrett has been checking off all the small crucial details. Planing down any high points in the bottom planking, finish fastening the transom to the stern knee, companion way hatch measurements, ordering materials, and most importantly determining the waterline. We’ll be using CeroCoat as a base layer of protection for the bottom planking. Cruising in tropical waters is absolutely in our future so the concern of worms and other wood munching sea creatures is real. Creosote being so incredibly poisonous made it a top pick for coating the underbelly of boats for many years this is also its downside. Today there’s an alternative called CeroCoat, some of the more harmful poison removed, still fights off the hungry teredos and is purchasable.

This product will never touch the water just soak into the wood and act as a barrier under the primer and anti-fouling bottom paint. The jury is still out on colors for the boat. The idea for red topsides on Rediviva still sounds super sexy! After the decks get their second coat of almond the bulwarks are up next. Moving on to bulwarks marks the transition from the priority list to secondary list of to-do’s before transport. No wasted time around this shipyard

All our love,

Rediviva Crew

When Rediviva was first unveiled we had to give her a full green makeover to protect her hull from the outside world.

As if the property were not already a spot that slowed traffic down now we hear the squeak of brakes halting cars; the sound of our neighbors realizing we’ve been building a boat this whole time!

It’s actually been several weeks in the process of taking down the shed. First we had to move our whole lumber yard outside. Rebuilding level stands separate from the shed walls. It’s crazy how much wood one can accumulate in 2 years time!

Then our masts had to relocate since the rack was also partially built into the shed (saving on material) 

Thankfully the masts have dried significantly over the last year and the three of us were able to man-handle them over to their new home.

Layer by layer we pealed back her many tarps.

It’s crazy to remember Garrett and I raised the shed on our own two March’s ago. Taking it down we had extra hands. Thanks to Hoffa and also my brother, Sam, showed up and Luke, my filming stand in, always does an excellent job documenting!

The 5 of us teared it down.

It surprisingly took only 3 hours to remove all the frames of the shed.

(compared to the week it took us to put it up)

Garrett and myself were on deck. Unscrewing the ridge-poll and walking the frames towards the bow to lay them down. Hoffa on starboard and Sam to port they hammered away at the shed’s feet and cross bracing stabilizing the legs as we dismantled it piece by piece.

Until it was gone!

And we were left with our mighty ship standing there. In the open. For the first time able to see her from every angle. We walked to the road for the view. All of a sudden she appears almost small, left out in the wide open. Trying to imagine a sea of blue instead of green.

Needless to say our captain was stoked!

Next up:

• More bung filling
• More wood preservative
• Painting the primer on the hull
• and the Bulwarks!

Cheers!

~Ruthie