Day 64

As most of the past 5 days have been pretty much the same thing, welding and fairing, this page will cover all of them so as to not be tedious. This is why there haven't been any entries to the site since the beginning of June. The first fairing of the radius vertical joins, done last year, were very rough...even though we thought we could get them in smooth the first time around. It just couldn't be so. Some of the joins were redone after all of the plate was on, and with success as the first ones from the bow. This past month, aside from welding all the plate of the hull, we further faired in the radius joins, and yes it looks 100X better! Now we have noticed the plate below the joins has been pulled slightly out. It really is noticable if the sun hits it in the evening at a sharp angle. These of course (only 3 ) need to be fixed as this would be a constant bug once we're "out there" cruisin' ! The sledge "may" be used here ;o) Anyway, this brings up the question, how perfect should it be? We're not willing to trade of time spent and effort involved for a slightly "not so good looking boat". But where does one draw the line?(or the curve....bad one! ) Is it getting better because our expectations are lower? A good example is the designer suggests leaving on the welds below the water line, instead of grinding them off smooth. To me this is ugly. Also, in my experience, paints or coating systems always wear at high pointy ridges. If we decide to leave them fully on, then they'll have to be filled on either side with compound filler. Luckily above the water line anything goes! Sitting in calm waters, this works great! But the sails are hoisted and the wind catches them..don't look! We're going to heal! Below the water line will definately be a dark color.
	Rain rain rain didn't stop us!	In the photo to the left, above and below the unpainted weld can be seen how things may look. The one above will be ground smooth as it is above the waterline, the center one won't be. Overall the hull came in very nicely and finally looks like a boat! Once the lines go that way, it makes you want to make them better, really. A deep sense of pride evolves and any flaws become the enemy. The wet hull after a rain can accentuate this!
;o)

	Camp Dulci-Darlene!	The rain was rather persistant over two weekends so we had the chance (whether we liked it or not! ) to see the hull as it really is, and will be when wet. We have come to see how time-evolved skills in metal boat building would have been a good pre-requisit. Also, the hard way is generally the right way.
We were impressed with our work all the same!