My maiden voyage in Jemima was about a week ago and was a disaster. The wind was blowing down river away from my put-in point and the current was flowing the same way. Needless to say it was hell sailing back. My tiller extension was about 8 inches too long and every time I tacked it would jam into the side tank and push me downwind. After an hour I pulled out my knife to cut the rope holding the tiller extension and tiller together and cut the extension off but managed to gash myself in the process. Blood was on everything.

I attribute this to not christening the boat before I went out. I did christen it, but it was with champagne after I rowed/swam/paddled back to the dock and cut myself again on the oyster beds. Needless to say, her feelings were hurt and I had to do it right the next time before I went out. Especially since I told her I was going to use Aussie wine while the building was going on.



So this time I took her to a lake. I didn't want to deal with tides, currents, oyster beds or brackish silt that you sink up to your hips in if you step in it. I also brought along an Aussie wine named Lucky Duck so I could christen her right.

She liked that a whole lot more than the champagne.

It was an amazing day on the lake. I would sail 20 minutes one way and then sail back. I inadvertently pulled one of the traveler line fairleads right out of the wood before I raised the sail so I couldn't point very high in the wind during the trip but I'll fix that before the next trip.

Here she is all rigged up and ready to sail. Still experiencing small craft advisories for the next few days so I'm stuck on shore.





After hoisting the sail in the driveway with a pretty strong breeze I noticed a few things I need to fix before the maiden voyage.

1. The block for the yard needs to be moved forward on the yard so the COE is correct in the sail.

2. The mast and/or the boom need some leather to protect them from themselves.
3. I didn't lash the spar ends correctly. (Just one wrap instead of a triangular sort of wrap.)

4. Forgot the downhaul!

Day 89

I finished today. I'd like to sail over the weekend but the forecast calls for steady 15mph winds with up to 30mph gusts. No thank you, not for the first sail. I'd like a nice breeze to get accustomed to the eccentricities of my new craft before I start testing its limits.

Anyway, here she is!

Day 86

I've spent a large amount of time painting and priming and it's almost ready. I've also spent almost everyday working on the boat in the morning and going to work at night so I'm tired. I'm in the process of building a cart to transport the boat from truck to water. However, today I'm going to follow my both of my dogs' recommendations and lounge around the house doing nothing.

Here's an update pic.

Day 84

The first coat looked like crap mostly because it was thin. Nothing a sander can't take care of...

The 2nd coat worked a whole lot better. I put it on thicker and had the remnants of the 1st coat to help out. Many of the dumb blemishes that were glaring at me the day before are now gone. I'm curious to see what it looks like in the morning and hopefully, since I tipped the paint after rolling it, there won't be any sags or runs.

Day 82

This morning I went out to the garage and scuffed up the patch. Then I mixed up a batch of filler and slathered it on the repair. While it was drying I starting scuffing up the resin on the rest of the hull so I could cover it primer.

Note to self:Polyester dust in your coffee is not good for you. Leave it inside next time.

After I propped her up, she got a good coat of primer and you almost can't see the patch. The paint accents a lot of rough spots that weren't so obvious when everything was shiny resin over wood grain so in the morning I'll break out the random orbit sander to level it all out and put on one more coat of primer.

...where the rain gets in...and stops my boat from sailing...where it will gooooo...

Day 81

Cross another boat building experience off the list. I now know how to fill and fiberglass a hole.

Yesterday I was getting the final coaming piece ready for installation while resin on the sides and some filler on the bow cured. The boat was tipped on its side and my table saw was across the garage. I just had to rip a 2.5 foot section and glue it in place. There was 6 inches left to cut and I decided it would behoove me to keep all 10 of my fingers. So as I pushed on the butt of the piece I reached to the end of the cut side and began to pull on the wood. 4500 rpms and 2.5hp doesn't like being told what to do and the saw shot both pieces off the saw. The smaller of the 2 hit the hull of the boat and fractured, then sailed over my full size truck into the road and finally came to rest 20 yds from the saw.

At least I still have all my fingers!

Now for the repair:Part 1

The original hole is smaller than a quarter. Not bad. However, the stress cracks extended out to form about 2.5 inches square that were no longer structurally sound.



I drilled holes from the inside to mark the boundaries of how far I could cut out with my jigsaw. The damage was extremely close to the side buoyancy tank so that meant the repair needed to be done on the outside.



After cutting out the hole I sanded the area down in order to have a beveled edge for the fiberglass and filler to stick to. Then I took a file and gently squared off the inside edge.



Next, I put a backing piece of plastic (the plastic off of the back of the sanding disc fit perfectly) on the inside of the hull and reinforced it with cardboard and finally a scrap piece of wood.




I applied a little filler so the fiberglass threads couldn't be seen.



While the filler was curing I cut out 3 pieces of glass, each an inch wider than the first. The very first piece was an inch wider than the hole. Then I applied resin then the first piece of glass, wet it out and continued until all pieces were on. I put an extra thick coat of resin on the last piece and went back inside.



...To be continued...