Outstanding Purchase

Finally, a day to work on the boat. It's been a fun day too, although I wish I'd gotten more done. First up was a trip to Gasweld at Gosford, to pick up my new sanding station, which had arrived at last. I unpacked & set it up as soon as I got home. After a quick lunch, I took it down the back & had a bit of a test sand on one of the first molds (it works like a cracker).

Then I went and sussed out the strongback after it's unplanned change of venue. It was slightly low at the uphill end, so I propped it up on a couple of sare bits of 19mm ply and it came up perfect. One thing that's worring me a bit though, is the fact that the top surface of the strongback now seems to be very slightly out of level crosswise at various points. After fiddling around for ages, I decided that there's not much I can do about it now. Even if I was to completely start again, the same thing might happen. Never mind, I resolved to try & make sure that each mold is properly vertical with a plumb bob and level with the spirit level at each station. Besides, it's not out by much.

Anyway, I was keen to get back to my molds (and my new toy). It's an absolute beauty and I was able to quickly and precisely sand each mold right down to the lines.

I managed to get through about half of the molds. Tomorrow I should be able to finish the rest & hopefully start getting some cleats attached to the strongback.

As for the anomally with the alignment of cleat/extension/mold assembly. I emailed Gary with my query and he immediately emailed me back to tell me that I was right and that a few of the cleats have to be a bit lower. Can't tell you how good it is to not have stuffed that bit up already.