Welcome back, quite a bit of changes have occurred since the most recent post... Ataraxia is about to be born!
She is sitting in my garage with her nomenclature drying on the starboard bow. There is plenty of touchup work to be done for sure, but frankly she is beautiful despite any minor imperfections. I think I am excited because as I have never had a child this must be as close to that emotion as I can imagine.
Here is a brief look back over the last 6 week's progress:
Well frankly, you can't really use a 17' sailboat all too much if you can't move her from place to place. So, as a result I purchased an absolute piece of garbage galvanized steel trailer back in June to hold Ataraxia. The catch, every single bolt was so rusted through that the instant a wrench or set of pliers was set to it the bolt flaked apart to the solid steel core and couldn't be moved. So, what do to? Drill baby drill! The above photo is the result of a titanium carbide drill bit boring directly though a galvanized steel bolt. Very satisfying.
Well, after a bit of drilling I figured I'd better attach some pad eyes to the mast if I was ever to hang any sails off her. It was actually pretty sad for me to take a drill to the finely hand-crafted wooden mast I built a few months earlier. But after dealing with the obnoxiously messy silicone caulk I was done.
Pretty simple picture, the cowls are in, and the topsides are painted white. She gets prettier.
See, told you. Here is the cockpit fully painted with the non-slip marine paint. I hate marine paint. It's expensive. But at least I can stand in my boat without falling over when she's heeled over with her rail in the water. I can't wait for that moment with the stereo up flying through the water...
She's getting prettier eh? The anchor well is done, cockpit is done, all she needs is a companionway hood and slide, and we're off! (the tabernacle is already done and removable along with the mast.)
Ok, so I was an eighth of an inch off in having a perfectly square companionway slide. I'll fudge it so it's perfect. Planers and bench grinders are good like that.
Ataraxia! Let's go sailing in a couple weeks!
