Drain and Rudder Holes

Relaxing
I a pretty sure I am on track to take the longest to build Pocket Ship.  Life's daily chores and vacation kept me away from building last week. We enjoyed some time at the beach celebrating 30 years of marriage. 

Work on Boat
After spending so much time building on your boat, it is somewhat difficult to start drilling and cutting holes in it!  I made sure I measured 50 times before cutting into the transom this past weekend.

I first started on the drain holes in the cockpit. These were somewhat easy. I used a 1 1/4" hole saw.
I still need to sand and apply many coats of epoxy.

For the rudder hole in the transom, I deviated from the plans some. I have seen on other boats where they made more of a oval shaped hole. This turned out to be more difficult than I expected.
I first needed a pattern and actually had a piece of wall art that had the shape of the oval.
I sized it down some and made sure the inside of the oval would fit the 3" X 3 1/4" square that the manual called for.  I measured many, many times before drilling a few holes around the oval. I thought this would make it easier. What it did was created a bunch of edges that looked bad. I would have been better off drilling one hole and then using the saw to cut it out.

Well after messing with my dremel tool, sand paper, hand saw, wood rasp tool and just about any other tool I could get my hands on, I got it close. I still need to do some sanding to smooth out the edges, but it was getting too hot in the garage. I can take 84 degree heat but for so long! 

Cockpit drain holes and tiller hole.

I have been also been busy applying multiple coats to the companion way hood for the pieces of fiberglass I installed prior to going on vacation. I just did a rough scuff sand and applied 2 more coats.

I also applied fiberglass to the bottom of the rudder. I will add 2 more fill coats this week.