Launch Day !!

After nearly 1 1/2 years I launched my Port Sorell skiff today. In the last three weeks I painted the interior, varnished the bright work, took a few days off to fish, and mounted the hardware. Yesterday I completed installing the rope rub rail and rolled the boat out on the drive way to take some photos. The launch today was on a small local creek with very protected waters and the boat was in the water only a few moments (just long enough to take the attached pictures) as today was quite stormy and I did not want to venture to far from the launch.

Since my last update, I finished varnishing the oars (five coats), and finished painting the floorboards. The final coat of paint on the floorboards had non skid compound mixed with the paint. In between paint coats on the floorboards I laced the oar leathers on the shafts. The leather kits came with a strip of thick steer hide. to make the buttons, but there was not enough to do all four oars. I spent yesterday learning to tie turks head knots and completed the oars with them instead of the leather strips. The opposite end of the leather was served with whipping twine to help keep the leather from curling up.

Getting started again

After a nearly 4 month break I started some work on the rowing skiff again. The winter here was unusually wet and cold, so any paint or varnish work was difficult to do outdoors. This past Friday I decided to work on the oars which arrived around Thanksgiving. I began by weight the oar handles. Four 1/2" holes were drilled in a scrap 2x6 and molten lead was poured inside. After the lead cooled, the wood was split apart with a saw and chisel and the lead weights were sanded down and test fit into another holed drilled in the remaining scrap wood. Thickened epoxy was applied to the end of each oar, and the weights were inserted. I allowed the glue to dry

overnight, and filled a few voids with fairing compound (top photo). After the fairing compound cured a few hours the oars were sanded, wiped down and the ends of the blades were painted blue to match the sheer stripe on the hull. On Sunday the first coat of varnish was applied to the oars and a second coat was added this afternoon. The ends resting on the saw horses will be varnished later.