pictures are worth 1000 words

We begin this weeks blog with a visit from Scott Watts who was in town delivering a boat and came by to see Luna. Scott and his family generously donated Luna to the Foundation and have been following along in her construction. This is his first time seeing her in almost three years- Geez, has it really been that long? Here is Scott enjoying the view from the stern. Thank you for making this possible! 

Our members come from far and wide to spend a little bit of quality time making saw dust and gluing it back together. Tom travels almost three hours to join us. Here he is chiseling out the area where window frames will be going in the transom.

After Tom finished chiseling out the wood, Mat rounded the edges and smoothed out any rough spots. A putty that will help seal the area in preparation for fiberglass was then applied.  Fiberglassing the area will make the window frame strong and waterproof.

After the putty was applied, it needed to be sanded smooth. Another of our commuting volunteers, Grace, works the extra globs of hardened putty out of the corners. These globs will prevent the fiberglass from laying flat, causing an air pocket so they must be smoothed out. Attention to details such as this ensure a quality result.

We're going to shift gears a little and remind ourselves what Luna looked like afloat the first time Grace, John G. and our shipwright saw her in St. Augustine Florida.

 In the photo below you will see two masts rising from the hull. The forward one has a yard arm- the horizontal piece of rigging about 2/3 the way up. Just above that is the cross tree and the topmast, which sits above the mainmast. This week we pulled the topmast out of her rack in storage and stripped it of paint and began preparing it for its dose of "boatsoup", a delightfully smelling traditional preservative we concoct on site that give old wooden boats a smell of hard work and being shipshape. While Luna is not mobile, parts of her are. Our intent is to take this and various other parts of her rigging to public events where you, our viewers and supporters, can see first hand how she is going together and maybe even help if you have a few spare minutes.

Below, Heather and Reggie have stripped the topmast of paint, sanded down any rough areas, and are bleaching the wood to get rid of any water stained or friction rubbed dark areas. These can be seen in the bottom photo and will take at least another coat of solvent to remove, then what ever does not bleach out will be lightly sanded. 

Here is our weekly picture of Ben working on frames. In earlier Blogs the assembly was described as a big jigsaw puzzle.  You can see the various pieces as they are prepared for their final fitting and fastening. Despite being made of hard as nails oak, each frame piece is painted with a preservative that will help keep moisture out and prevent rot from setting in. Enjoy this view- it is one of the last frames to be replaced, we will soon have to find something else to take pictures of Ben doing for weeks on end.

Waste not, want not. Down to our two last boards of Juniper, this is just enough material to make the last four  hull planks needed on the starboard side and enough left over for a piece or two on the transom. Obviously we will purchase more when needed, but we spend time making cardboard templates and patterns to get the most out each piece of wood making sure its right the first time. Dutch is measuring twice, getting ready to cut once. This board is sixteen feet long, twenty inches wide, and two inches thick.

At the end of the day we clean. The boat, the shop, and even the tools get cleaned (sometimes we do too!). Amber is blowing dust out of a sander used on the mast. Each tool is regularly inspected for worn or loose parts and repaired or replaced as needed. This helps keep us safe, them running, and our overhead down.

Thank you for visiting our little corner of the world. We will be back on board next weekend and will also be planning our venture to Bay Days in Hampton the weekend of September 10-12. The following week, we will be at the Mariners Museum in Newport News on Sunday the 19th, Please come by and visit. If you are interested in joining the Foundation or would like more information, please visit our website at www.colonialseaport.org or send us an E-mail at info@colonialseaport.org!