Day Five

Date: 5/13/22

Current Time: 4:28

Today’s Time: 6:30 hrs

Overall Time: 29:50 hrs

Well, I didn’t end up doing any painting today but I got much farther along than I expected with a few other things! Firstly, I beat out a plan for the shape of the paddle of my oar. I took inspiration from a few different designs online and set out an outline on some posterboard-like material. 

As you can see from that picture, I also made huge progress on the shafts of the oars themselves! Overnight the glue dried completely and I was able to get them down to the correct width and thickness. 

After that, I cut the hex into the shafts which I will smooth into a round with a grinder or hand planer. I wish that I took a picture of the setup Greg made in order to cut the 45-degree angle, it was rather complex. 

Even though I didn’t start painting, I did do some work on the hull, using epoxy to fill some scrapes and spiderweb cracks that were revealed by the sanding yesterday, I’ll sand that down again before I paint over it.

Greg and I went on an expedition to the construction site to scavenge for unused scraps and we were able to find enough pieces to make the entire paddles of at least the first two oars. 

Lastly, I put one more coat of varnish on the benches, it is coming out really well! The mahogany has this beautiful golden quality to it that you, unfortunately, can’t really see well in pictures.