It was either buy a cruiser (sailboat) or build a cottage. Being purely practical given the short season for sailing and the distance we have to travel for decent cruising water, the Cottage was the obvious choice!
Several years ago, like 15 or so, I built a dighy sailboat. I am quite proud of it as it was made of mahogany and is quite a looker. However, it has been stored up at the cottage lot, even before the cottage was even started, and received a bit of water damage.
My son is not an avid sailor but sees in the dighy as an excellent platform on which to pursue his love of fishing. He unilaterally declared a few weeks ago that he was going to restore it, and in fact make it even better.
Here is the dnghy with the first phase of sanding, and a bit of expoxy to ìmprove`a few areas on the hull.
The reason for the tarp is two fold: 1) to keep off the rain, and 2) to keep the hard sun off as well.
Painting and expoxying does not really fair well in either rain or sun. If it is raining and even if the tarp keeps the hull dry no painting will occur -- it will just be too humid. When it is sunny, the paint doesn`t really dry properly in direct sun so again the tarp is required.
I am eager to see the results of this restoration. Nathan, that`s my son, plans to:
- Add more strength to the transom - so he can clamp on an electric motor,
- Create a two-tone color scheme to the hull (White and blue),
- Fix the mast support, and
- Generally redo the clear finish on the inside of the hull
Coming Up:
Stay tuned we will regularly update you with progress on the dinghy throughout the summer.
;-)