Nearing completion!! Just a few more fine details and then she's on the water!

Here she is after a long hard weekend, but wait, let's start at the beginning… (see next photos!)

Another (hard!) weekend of work. Bodies aching, fingers sticky with 4200 adhesive, bruised and punished... ahhh, boat owner-ship! Not for the faint of heart!

We survived alright, just a bit tired, but man, what great work we accomplished. It really pays to make a list, and then not really follow it exactly but go with the flow, so to speak. We were very lucky that we didn't encounter any major setbacks, at least, nothing that we didn't find a way to work through, around, or "disguise" :)

All in all, we did some major "clean-up" so to speak of many projects that were under-way, under planning or otherwise delayed. The companionway boards are in, even though they may need some tweaking to get the fit they should, they are better than they ever have been AND they are installed: CHECK that off the list!

We followed through on the following:

• re-bedded stanchions, pulpit and mainsheet attachment
• cleaned and polished the pulpit and stanchions (whew!) We even polished the heads of the screws!
• made mast crutches fore and aft
• installed the interior trim and "table" parts
• installed the newly painted interior hatch covers
• painted the inside of the worn cowling
• dremel'd the bolts on the motor mount and dressed with acorn nuts
• installed the starboard/lazarette seat
• installed the newly cut vinyl seaward logo that I photo'd, redrew in illustrator and had my sign guy cut, on the port aft quarter. Near perfect fit, but dang those little letters aren't going to last! (I was warned!)
• Oh, and most important, we installed a simple rubber bumper so that when sliding the companionway hatch open it didn't slam into the backstop (or punch through it as it were!).

Crap, we hurt like it was more, there must be much more that I can't think of right now. Suffice it say we got a lot done.

Just leaves putting the new stripes and name on each side of the hull. The electrical system will have to wait, Firefly will just be a day sailer for now.

Stacey at the drill press working on the mast crutch

next step, cutting it out.

Then rounding over the edge

Rough, but it's going to be covered in multiple layers of padding carpet.

Starboard/Lazarett seat/fuel storage installed and the finished motor mount bolts

 

Rachel and Stacey inside checking out the new interior installed!

What good is designing and building something if it can't be pretty, too!?

We also like things to match around here!

First of the new vinyl going on

Good as new!

Stacey working on polishing the pulpit, so much easier off the boat!

I used the Nifty 3M stripe removal tool to get rid of old bedding compounds
I also used Barkeepers Friend to get rid of the rust on some parts of the deck.
The rest cleaned up with scrub free.

Don't look...NAKED BOAT! Here she is after removing the
pulpit and stanchions for re-bedding.

Masked off, the "Don Casey, Boat Doctor" way!

Mainsheet attachment gets the treatment, too!

Companionway hatch finally gets it's sliders back on

My newly crafted aft mast crutch using the existing gin pole!

We love the dual purpose of this, being able to use for not
just carrying the mast but helping to raise it, too!

Stacey's newly designed forward mast crutch that kindly and gently slots itself onto our pulpit.
Once again, thanks to Tim at Quiet Boating for the inspiration.

Nicely polished (thanks Stacey!) stanchion re-bedded and looking pretty!

Here she is, soooooo close to being complete, also looking quite pretty!

Back to storage for now, but with new lifelines on the way and a few more
enhancements, we should be on the water in a couple of weeks.