1930 Schooner MISTRESS

 It is now March of 2005 and Skip, MISTRESS, and I experience some heavy storms.  On March 4^th we figure out the business next door to my office has been mishandling toxic paint fumes and for the past year and a half have been ventilating the fumes through my office.  It makes me sick enough I am unable to work, and to date, have not been able to return.  This leaves Skip with all the responsibilities and he is forced to go back to work on other’s boats to pay our bills, while he takes care of me, the house, and continues his work on MISTRESS.  I do not mind telling you he is one hell of a man and I am very lucky to have him in my life

The next storm that blows through happens just a few days later.  A strong westerly wind crushes several frames to the building MISTRESS calls home.  I am not able to help Skip, therefore I do the only thing I can and take pictures of her without the building in the way.  Had Skip known in the beginning that it would take six years instead of four to five as we anticipated, he would have painted that part of the braces embedded in the ground to stop rot.  He removes the cover and sets out repairing the frames.  By the day’s end, her cover is once again in place and Skip returns to his work on her interior.

From this picture, you can see that the chain plates are in place, polished to near perfection, Skip has made each by hand from scratch and they all sit flush with the hull. 

By the way, the reason the paint does not look the same fore and aft is because it is two photos I have joined together.  The night blooming jasmine, which I planted the day my Dad passed away, is now so large I cannot shoot around it, therefore, I took two shots and joined them together.  It is only an illusion that the paint is not the same color.   

Using the core material with the Maranti ply veneered to each side, Skip makes up the ¼ berth.  It will be 80” long, assuring comfort for our tallest friends.  Under the berth itself there are three storage areas and you can see that Skip has continued boring holes to add ventilation through out the boat.  This berth will also have a long shelf in it, a regular fan, and a nicro solar fan, which I will tell you more about later, a light, and a celestial compass.  Skip has always had a thing about compasses and when he found this upside down compass many years ago, he saved it just for this berth.  It is nice when underway and not the one on watch, because while lying down you can see the compass above your head and know which direction the boat is heading in.  Just forward of the ¼, is a locker which will hold Skip’s tools and our overboard bag.  Just forward of that you can see a ½ round piece of wood.  This will be the start of the chart table.  Those stairs you can see he made in 2 hours and they almost stayed with MISTRESS when time started to get short, but in the end, he would make grand companionway steps.

In this picture, I am facing aft and on the port side.  Skip has begun the galley, which will extend on both sides.  This old sink he saved for some time and while I would preferred an under mount sink, it is nice to have two deep sinks, especially when we are underway and I need a safe place to store something quick.  Skip will give me a shelf at the top of this part and the whole area will include much in the way of storage space.  The gimbaled stove will be just outboard of where I am standing while taking this picture. 

Skip has progressed with the head and in this picture, you can see the entry to the engine room I spoke of a few weeks ago.  The sink came with MISTRESS along with that great hand pump.  In the end though, the hand pump would not make it to the finals but instead will be replaced with one faucet, which doubles as a showerhead.  It has a long hose and therefore when one wants to take a shower, you pull the faucet out and can attach it to a mount on the bulkhead.  When you pull on the end of the faucet, it turns into shower mode.  I have a lot of storage space in the head.  There are the cubbies you can see aft and there are two additional ones, much larger, that are outboard.

On April 24, 2005, I shot the above picture.  Skip is all over MISTRESS now, working both above and below deck.  The white you see on the side deck is Dynel, a fabric similar to fiberglass however it has no loose fibers, is lighter, and much easier to work with then fiberglass.  It has 10 times the abrasion resistance of fiberglass.  Done properly, it comes out looking like a canvas deck and offers many times more durability.  The material came in widths that allowed Skip to cover the entire deck with only a seam at the centerline, fore and aft.  It took him one day to do the port side and one for the starboard.  The housetop is not finished yet, the Dynel for that area will come later. 

In this photo, he has begun the cockpit combings using the core material with the Maranti ply skin.  The bulwarks are fair and the waterway is nearly done.  The house sides at this point, are three layers of Eurolite that was vacuum bagged.  There is also biaxis fiberglass tape joining the house and combings to the deck, all over an epoxy fillet.  You can see one of the access hatches to one of the propane tanks. 

Skip kids saying, "If the builder had used a little more forethought, you'd also see a built-in cooler in this picture".  

 Here is another look at those chain plates. 

We left off last week looking aft.  This view is port side looking forward and shows one of the prisms in the side deck.  There are six in all and often allow enough light for reading, and on a bright day, it’s like looking at a 100-watt light bulb.  In the evening, each prism lights the way utilizing either the red or, white lights, from below.  There is one is in the saloon, one over the chart table, one in the galley, one in my office, and one forward of the forward chain locker. 

This week Skip is working on the caprail, made from 1 & 3/8^th inch thick mahogany.  He joined the rail with shiplap scarf joints and teak butterflies.  There is a ¼” deep groove in the bottom of the cap rails, which fits over the top of the bulwarks.  The cap rails are bedded in polysulfide and screwed every 8” with 3 & ½” #14 SS screws.   Skip says it took him 40 hours to get this done. 

In this picture, we get a glimpse of the transom now in place.  Not yet completed, but coming along.    

Here Skip is routing the cap rail to shape.  He will then sand it all to 220.  

Skip continues with the caprail during the first two weeks of June 2005.  First the starboard side and then he moves on to port.

This picture was taken on June 5, 2005

The caprail is finished with six layers of Bristol Finish and after two years it still looked good enough for the Wooden Boat Show. 

Skip is back working on the transom and at this point he has done the bleaching, staining, and five coats of CPS.  He has also put 12 coats of epiphanies and 5 coats of Albright.  The next step in the transom will be the gold he will use for the carved rope and the lettering.

This picture was taken June 18, 2005 

This picture was taken the same day from a different angle.