Ruth here:

“This past week has consisted of hunting for materials, messing around with sticky substances like tar and epoxy, more supply runs, an assembly line, and finally installing the 34 intermediates to the boat. She looks so solid! Garrett changed his mind 4 times before deciding the “perfect” method. 3 intermediates are of the first design and the rest are the final verdict besides the first 4 in the bow which are cut from 4×6’s …. no joke they’re beef-cakes

We’ve also sent out 4 requests to quote the cost of trucking the boat to the San Francisco Bay Area for completion in a boatyard. We are pretty confident we will be able to have her ready for transport in the fall, September or October. Really exciting stuff. In the slot that asks for the “Make” it felt weird to type “Homebuilt.”

This has nothing to do with the boat and I can just picture Garrett shaking his head at me but I think it’s pretty cool and am quite proud of myself. Without an oven and no recipe I made a frittata! And with our neighbors duck eggs too! We even had some French Rose wine in the fridge to accompany and the beautifulest of mornings to enjoy it!

Cheers to progress!”

NEW VIDEO

WE HAVE A MOTOR!!!!

We are well past the halfway point planking the topsides! The planks are going on really fast now, and they are all the way down to the gussets. Which means I have to stop my momentum to install intermediate frames… The intermediates are fames that extend from the sheer to the chine. There will be one intermediate between each set of frames. They are really easy to make, and go pretty fast but it’s a bit tedious seeing as there are 34 of them to do.

We had an awesome lumber picking day at home depot of all places. A few good hours of sorting through the lumber piles we came out with over 120 LF of clear doug fir 2×8’s! This will save us hundreds of dollars on bottom planking! (they will be ripped down to 2×6)

 Much more area covered than whats left to cover! You can see two of the intermediates in between the 2nd and 3rd / 3rd and 4th frames.

 So far this is the only plank that required more patience, and precision. This plank is notched to except two planks with more extreme taper. This helps make up for the extra surface area towards the bow.

 Nice view of her sheer line. The planks at the stern are simply run out past the transom, and will be trimmed later.

 I can’t wait until we can see her in the open not cooped up in the shed!

Thats all for now!

Ruth here:

“I wake up to a cool chill in the morning with the rising birds singing to the blue skies. The sun slowly overcomes the shadows of the dawn and warms my face as my coffee steams in my hands. Each day the boat grows like a child outgrowing her first pair of clothes. My mother and my aunt came to see her yesterday. My mom hasn’t been out since August seeing as she lives in California. My aunt saw her for the first time traveling all the way from Chicago. I love watching first impressions. In person, Rediviva towers over your head something the pictures just can’t capture.

The picture I snapped this morning is foggy because it was quite cold for the camera and then it died…. apologies

I’ll let Garrett explain this next planking technique when I can get better pictures to illustrate. Not much area left to cover now on the Port side. Exciting!

Every plank front and back eventually gets covered in the green preservative: copper naphthenate

It’s “easy” now to pull 10 hour work days and we are flying through planking. We scored on a few more pieces of wood for the bottom planking to come and even talked with a sail maker! Things are starting to get real.”

Cheers

Ruth here:

“In order to celebrate I’ve put together this video. I’ve taken so many pictures this past year and this made it hard to choose the right ones for this “flashback” video. I feel pretty satisfied with how it turned out. Not originally what I set out to put together but it’s become so much better. I’ve re-watched it several times already and it brings tears to my eyes to think back on all this hard work! So many days we were exhausted beyond our limits and yet the next day the sun came up and with it the next work day began. We’ve certainly helped hold each other up. Many months before we started we went back and forth on whether or not we should even undergo something so crazy and would we go crazy ourselves while doing it. Our biggest fear was that it would become too much. Both of us are quite stubborn so we were determined once we began there was no other option than to finish. This didn’t, however, stop those thoughts from arising and that conversation to be had time and time again. Now a year in and we both are saying with confidence we are half way through the build. Soon she will be floating and this all will seem like a dream just as it was from the beginning. A dream now a reality!

Cheers to year 2!

Ruth here:

“This week we may see up to 70 degrees! I just can’t contain myself.
We are moving right along. We’ve got the first plank on in the bow for run #5 and we’ve begun cutting the next planks for the rest of the 5th and then the 6th run. The sun is shining and I’ve got the next 4 days off to help Garrett get stuff done!

Here is the beautiful Redivivia now half way through her topside planking!

Keep sending the good vibes!”

Ruthie

We finally have some pictures to share of our planking progress. We are on the fourth run of planking on both sides, and it will take eight runs to reach the chine. So far everything is going on easily, and we can really start to feel the boat gain strength and rigidity as all the frame work gets tied together.

 cutting the stem rabbet down for the fourth run.

 Fourth bow plank.

 This is where we are on both sides as of today. Lots of rain on the forecast so we’ll see what this week brings.

Thats all for now!

Garrett & Ruth

Hey everyone! We haven’t posted in a bit, and I happen to have internet right now. Unfortunately I don’t have our camera to upload pictures… Soon though. Anyway things are moving along. Winter and spring seem to be duking it out, and so far Im not sure who’s winning. It’s definitely warming up slowly, but we were quite surprised to wake up to snow this morning! It doesn’t look like it will last to long, but it’s been coming done pretty hard.

Planking is going swimingly although a bit slower than I would like due to all the rain we’ve been having. I am finally learning to accept these weather delays after a year of working on this project. There is always something else I can focus my energy on. For instance yesterday I finally got around to a job I had been neglecting since last summer. The said job being bolting the stem assembly together. Quite an important thing, but I got into the habit of saying “I’ll get around to it eventually” on account of it being firmly glued together with epoxy.  I get into this obsessive need to progress sometimes that I put the little things on the back burner. Another valuable life lesson to be learned from this project! As much as I want to be done building, and start sailing again I value this experience more than I can describe. It has, and will continue to teach me so much. Not only about boat building, but about life, and the way I perceive it. I know I need to get through this in order to fully appreciate the freedom and bliss of sailing, and the cruising life I have been so fortunate to live.

Once again thank you to everyone, and a special thank you to all who have donated to help us achieve our dream!

 (thought this was cool!) Cheers!

Garrett & Ruth (and swab)

s.v. Rediviva

We had a bit of a delay sorting out some issues with i movie, but here it is!