Boat Plans Bruce Roberts
Ive finished the aft deck and swim platform, and can check it off of the soon to be developed list.
Finishing the aft deck consisted painting the swim platform, painting the hand rails on the swim platform, painting the transom, painting the aft deck and aft deck bulwark, hanging the two bulwark doors on the aft deck and installing the wood cap on the aft deck bulwark.
By the time I fabricated the jamb and the stainless steel keepers,t he two bulwark doors took almost a day to hang. I built these two door handles a little different than the Portuguese bridge door handle, and they were much more simple to install. I had allowed these handles to project more in to the deck area so I had more meat on the jamb, which let me do the installation without mortising the jamb. Im totally happy with how tight the door closes and how the handles look. Im glad I went the extra effort with this style vs going to a big box store and using an off the shelf gate latch. There are two doors on the aft deck. If we are tied to a dock on the starboard side, well step up and enter the boat via the starboard door. If we are tied off on the port side, well step on the the swim platform and step up the aft deck using the transom steps. 
Painting the transom and the swim platform gave me a chance to see the green color on the boat and how the green looks next to the off white. Like the fore deck hand rails, I decided to paint the hand rails on the swim platform. The hand rails on the swim platform were made of 1 1/2" 316 stainless schedule 40 pipe,
but I did not want trust my ability to polish them bright, and felt paint would be the most maintenance free treatment. I really like the look of bright stainless, but I doubted I could prevent them from rusting. I also painted the stainless steps going from the swim platform to the aft deck. Like the rest of the swim platform and decks, Ill add anti skid once she ready for launch and I"m not dealing with mud being tracked on deck. I like the green chosen for the hull color but it makes the off white look more like pure white when the two are next to each other. For a comparison look at the off white next to the pure white I painted on the wheel house floor as compared to the off white next to the green. I was afraid to go much darker on the off white for fear of heating the decks up to much.
Ive increased the size of the aft deck which decreases the size of the salon. Having the covered aft deck large enough for a table and four chairs was more important to me than having the reciprocal amount of square footage in the salon. A lot of living and socializing will be happening on the aft deck, so its an important space for us. The aft deck will also have a grill, and a hot/cold outdoor shower with a shower curtain. Ill add the shower and wash down hose fitting after shes at the launch site and I have the salon welded in place.
I was bumming. The problem I encountered was having the gun suck air caused the paint to dry before it hit the metal giving me this unacceptable texture. The paint was dry and would not lay down. The area is right by the steps leading to the transom door, so I wanted to fix it. Having never repaired paint, I decided to try a small area to see how I could make out. I mean the worst that could happen is I mess it up more and have to re paint the whole transom. Starting with 800 grit wet dry, I wet sanded a 8" x 8" spot, then used 1200 grit and finished with 1500 grit ( all wet sanding). The final step was to use some fine cut polish and a electric orbital polisher, and buff the test spot. I have to say the spot looks amazing. The paint texture is now perfectly flat, and the polish brought the paint to a mirror finish. I actually look like I knew what I was doing. While the transom has a good shine to it ( except for the bad spot Im trying to fix), my test spot now looks far superior to any other part of the transom.
Fixing the bad spot is now going to make the bad spot the best spot, so I think Ill end up polishing the whole transom to make everything look even. I dont want to get in to this habit for the rest of the hull, so Im content with polishing this area, as this is the only way on and off of the boat. Having a crappy finish on this area will bug me every time I pass by, so Im fixing it. I took a picture showing the messed up flat looking paint on the right side of the picture and the repaired shiny paint more on the left side. The key is not letting the paint pot get to low, and making sure you have enough thickness in case you need to do a repair.. Im not looking for a perfect mirror finish on the boat, but I want it to please me, be easy to clean, and be respectable in the eyes of those who know.
Im now ready to start work on painting the below the water line area of the hull, but before I do that I have to organize the shop. Under the boat has been used for storage of parts for the wheel house/salon, scrap metal, spare parts, scrap wood, and a host of all kinds of debris. I have a days worth of making things right, then I can start on prepping this part of the hull. Hopefully, within two weeks, the bottom of the hull is painted and Ill start getting the boat off of the building cradle. Before I can get axles under her, I have to have the cradle removed and have her sitting on blocks. In the last picture, you can see some of the below the water line paint I have already rolled on. Im using a two part paint called Amerlock. Pretty nasty stuff that is too thick to spray so Ill be rolling it on.
Cheers
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a pretty nice Cherry tree growing along side the barn that Ive been eyeballing for the last year so, and after much thought, I made the decision to harvest it. There are plenty of trees on our property, and 
while this one will be missed, its going to good use. All the lumber will go into the boat build, and the wood from the top will be used to help heat the house and barn this Winter. My interest in this particular trees was mainly for the large diameter trunk. The trunk was about 44" in diameter and split off into a nice crotch. The crotch didnt appear to be cracked, and had a nice "U" shape to it, so it should work well for making table tops. The tree also had two leads both with decent size to them, and looking up in to the tree it was obvious there was some board footage in it. I knew the tree was old, and the risk of such an old tree getting storm damaged was real. Cherry trees, with their shallow root system are susceptible to being blow over.
A lot of moisture escapes through the log ends, and waxing the ends helps seal the end and helps prevent the lumber from cracking. Because Im afraid of fungus growing in the log, I dont like to let them sit to long, so once they were waxed, I loaded them on to my trailer for the trip to Carl Claypools saw mill.
in the next town away from us, does a nice job sawing, and knows how to use his saw. He drives around his place on restored tractor with his dog "pekerwood". "How come pekerwood always has a scraped up nose every time I see him" I asked Carl. "Well I guess he keeps putting it where it dont belong" Carl answered after his poorly aimed shot of tobacco juice missed a wasp. " You ought cut that big crotch log into 2" slabs and make some coffee table tops" said Carl as he felt the log with his three fingered hand.
"So you think we should cut the crotch log in to eight quarter stock, and the rest of it into four quarter eh Carl" I asked. "Sounds like a we developed a plan, so now I got to get going and plant some corn" said Carl. " You payin cash right" Carl shouted as he walked towards the tractor. It sounded not much like a questions but more as a reminder. The work order was in, Carl was going to cut the crotch log into 2" stock and the rest of the timber into 1 1/8" stock
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I stacked the lumber in to three piles using the sticks Carl had cut for me. I was happy to see I had quite a few boards that were 20" and a bunch that were 15" across. Most of the widths are 10 -12", with very little under 8". The wood has nice figure, and is dripping with character. The crotch log turned out nice, and most of those 2" slabs are 28" wide. He sawed some of the log "wild" which means he left the bark on it and as Carl told me " that bark on them slabs could make for an interesting table top, if a guy would learn how to think out of the box".
Ill aim a low powered fan at the pile and try to help it dry. A good rule of thumb is air drying takes one year per inch of lumber to get it down to 7% moisture. I have about 400 of dried lumber left, but the choices are getting skinny so I needed to do this. The lumber I have dried will build cabinet door frames, and cabinet face frames, so Ill have plenty of stock to get started on the galley. Having a nice supply of lumber of this quality for the price I paid goes a long way towards keeping me under my non existent budget. 
2" stock to build a coffee table between the two comfy chairs that will be in the salon. I also want to build a table for the back wall of the wheel house using the 2" slabs. The dinner table will be larger than the other two tables, so Ill use some of the 4/4 stock for that job. I want a real old time shippy look to the wheel house and salon, so I plan on using all wood for the interior with the only painted surface being the bead board ceilings.
