cac's blog

You know, there is a LOT of a 28' hull to sand on. Just trying to go around the "edges" takes a while.

I put the new sander and planer blades to good effect for a while tonight. Got the keel/skeg nicely smoothed up, got most of the chines smoothed, and a bunch more hit and miss work.

Now I've got to fill a bunch of holes/gaps and smooth it all one more time and get ready for a layer of cloth/epoxy over the entire thing.

It's nice to finally be back at it after being sick for what seems so long.

Time = 1 hour

Everybody talks about how much sanding it takes to fair out the hull... I'm beginning to get a glimmer of an idea. I've got to get the sides of the skeg smoothed out. That thickened epoxy is tough stuff.  read more »

Well, seems like a small step, but I now have a continuous piece from stem, through the keel to the full skeg at the stern. May not seem like much, but somehow it feels like a big accomplishment.

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Got to work on things for a bit... got the "filler" pieces at the back put in place to correct where I started too far from the back.

Stopped by the store on the way home and changed the bolts out for the right size and have those holes in the bottom of the boat filled and nicely covered with the next layer of keel.

Money = $12.12 (bolts, nuts and washers) + .85 (tax) = $12.97

Time = 2 hours

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Got home at a decent hour (twice in a week! Hope my boss doesn't read this :-)) and got to trim hull bottom some more.

And guess what... I finished! Got both sides of the bow done and all. That part went MUCH faster than the first time. I think it was a case of knowing how to do it this time (plus new, sharp blades on the planer). At least they were sharp until I hit a few screws I missed removing before I got there.  read more »

As we celebrate this Crhistmas season around the world, I just want to wish all my boat building, cruising and otherwise boat nut friends a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

May you enjoy your time with family and friends, stay safe and have fun on the water or off!

I'm sure you've noticed if you are reading this on the page and not via RSS, but Craft A Craft has a new, totally different look. Hopefully you will enjoy this and find it easier to navigate and be overall less cluttered. Major topics can be found at the top (people seemed to have a problem finding them before).

There will still be some minor changes and cleanup, but I wanted to go ahead and toss this out.  read more »

Just a quick "Happy Memorial Day" wish to all. As you are with your friends and family, please remember all of those who have made our celebrations and our hobbies possible.

THANK YOU!

Hard to believe, but one year ago this site went live. I don't know where the time has gone.

From that first post (here's a copy of the earliest version I have saved) to until today there have been 746 published articles. After an early on again, off again schedule, in the last 8 months there have been only 11 days without new content. Some of this content has proven very popular, and obviously some was only of interest to me :-) Glance back through the archives and see what you find.

In that time we've also opened an Amazon based store to assist in finding your boating book (and "stuff") needs. We've also opened up commenting with a pretty good automatic spam filter so that you can make comments and have them appear without waiting for my approval.

Hopefully you are finding some gems amoung the links and articles I have provided. I want to thank the contributers who have sent me pictures or links, those who have answered my questions, and most of all, thanks to all of you out there who make Craft A Craft a regular stop in your web surfing.

Where are we going from here? Well, I have plans to do some redesign of the home page to hopefully make it easier to find things and to navigate around. I want to include more links to some of our other boating blogger friends so that you won't miss posts from other sites. Lastly, I'm moving more into the "build phase" of my Van Abbema V28 and hope to have regular updates on that front.