Really made progress on the dinghy these past couple days. It really got into gear whn we moved the boat inside the shop, taking advantage of all the new space we have after the monster clean-out of the last few weeks. Under cover, i could really get moving on the paint!
Yesterday morning, i put the last coat on the decks, and by that afternoon i’d finished off the the whole headrig (bowsprit, gammoning block, whiskerstays, and outer bobstay). Tensioned up, the bowsprit has a perfect(!) bowse to it; set static, the bowsprit angles up about 10 degrees, but is now cinched down a couple inches to nearly level. The resultant curve provides a signifigant amount of “preload”, which will further prevent upward deflection from the jibstay and forestay.
i made the whole headrig as beefy as appropriate for the scale; it’s really important rigging! Mindful of recent events with Pride II’s headrig, as well as past failures aboard the Lady and Elissa, i’ve overbuilt every part of the headrig.
i also got the horse installed on the afterdeck, as well as the ringbolts for the running backstay deck attachments. i started laying out my bag of shackles, sheaves, fairleads, and cleats on the decks, making sure i’d bought or built enough little bits. The self-tending fores’l may give me more trouble than i thought, but i’m sure i can work something out.
The lads around the shop are trying to get me to add a sole grate, but i’m not entirely convinced it would be worth the labour, expense, and weight; we’ll see. Otherwise, the list is down to: sails, shrouds, rudder install, final deck hardware installation, and… well, heck, i can’t recall what else, but there must be something left…
Oh, this is gonna be fun!