I Hate Filleting

Filleting is one of the most miserable experiences I have ever had in my life. I might even be willing to put it on par with having to carry on a civil conversation with an ex. You always start out thinking it will be nice and neat, but it always ends up messy. Always. So you might as well just do it drunk, make the mess, and worry about clean up later.

Speaking of clean up, does anyone have a good suggestion for sanding corners? Especially the acute angled corners along the bulkheads? I am not looking forward to this. I haven't taken any pictures of the fillets themselves yet, they're too abominable to show anyone as of yet. They are very functional, just ugly. I plan to finish the filleting and start glassing the bottom of the boat this week. Hopefully I can get a fair amount done because the weather seems like it will be fairly warm all week.

More to follow soon...

In Search of Natural Entropy...

So, with one of the last few naturally occurring entropic days of the year I decided to take advantage and "tack weld" the boat together using the "fast" hardener in my epoxy mix rather than the "slow" hardener I had been using until now. First off, the faster stuff is awesome. Granted it is slightly more manageable due to lower temps but I like knowing that my chemical reactions are occurring at a pace where I can see the immediate results. (Patience has never been a strong suit of mine) The other reason I like it so much is that it is slightly more reliable at the lower ambient temperatures I will sadly be experiencing over the next 6 months. I am hoping this will not have a catastrophic effect upon completion of the boat. Thoughts? I have included a pic below that shows the entire lower hull assembled and ready for filleting. I have already done the tack welding step and will complete the fillets over the weekend. I'll be honest, I am absolutely petrified of removing the wire stitches tomorrow once the tack welds have cured. I keep having the horrific reoccurring waking dream where the entire boat and all it's seams pop apart just as the last wire stitch is removed. I made sure the fillets at the bow were extra wide just to assuage any fears of mine. They have not been assuaged as of yet.

On a more personal note, I am thinking of getting a puppy. I'm leaning towards a beagle but I'm still torn over whether or not I will have enough time to properly care for it. The biggest reason I want one is so I can have a companion while sailing and just in general. My friends that live around here don't really give a shit, and frankly a dog will be about a 1000 times more loyal than a girl. I could make a witty comment now about how women and entropy could be equated but I will save that for a night when I'm feeling a little more bitter... Chicks blow...

Now... back to my delicious Chocolate Stout!

My Apologies

Sorry to all my fan(s) who have been waiting patiently for updates on the boat building progress. I'm fairly certain only one person reads this, or at least he is the only one who mentions reading it! Well, rest assured just because I haven't been updating this blog it does not mean I haven't been making progress. I had to wait for my landlord to move some snowplow blades out of the garage about a week ago but in that week the progress has been significant. I gotta be honest I don't really have anything exciting to say about life other than I am wholly disappointed in the attractive lesbian that I know after having met her girlfriend for the first time. I mean, it's cool that they're lesbians and all, but that doesn't mean the girlfriend has to be an anti-social bitch. I mean, she wasn't a butch lesbian or anything so in theory she could still be cool. I guess I'm just pissed off that an attractive blonde girl is going to waste by dating an annoying anti-social chick. I feel as though the blonde is still capable of being saved...

Anyway, onto the boat. So once the snowplow blades were moved out of the garage I put the cradle together and immediately began assembling the bottom of the hull. After more than a few puncture wounds and scratches, along with some spilled DNA, the hull began to take shape. The most interesting part of putting together a boat hull is stitching together the tip of the bow; this is done using your hands to tighten the wires while squeezing the panels together with your inner thighs. Needless to say, I have a large quantity of scratches and bruises on my inner thighs. Not really the place I expected to injure myself in this process. Now that the hull is together there are sharp pieces of heavy gauge wire protruding all over the place on the boat. My ultimate fear is that I will catch one of these wires in the eye while crawling underneath the boat.

That being said I am doing my best to haul ass and get all the bulkheads in as soon as possible so I can low down all the epoxy fillets this week while the weather is warm for one last time. Yup, that's about it for now. Enjoy the pics...