Like dirty shorts on pay day

Yesterday afternoon we carried out the plan as put out in yesterday's blog - who knew - and today No. 2 has been stabilized on her blocks, one fore and one aft, and she's kept from heeling off the blocks by diagonals spiked to the ground and chocked in place under the gunwales.

We did have one or two issues with the jacking process. All in all I think the lesson learned is that if the boat can move in a given direction, it will move that way, especially if you don't want to. Besides, we should all know by now that Mr. Murphy is my closest assistant and always lurking.

The stabilization took about an hour, and very soon after we began discussing the plan of attack. The fiberglass needs to be pulled back about four feet from both the stem and sternpost and the fasteners located and prepped for removal. No sooner had we discussed this and I walked away to grab the camera, I noticed the crew beginning to go to work on the fiberglass. "Good luck" I yelled out the window "you'll probably need to wait for the heat guns."

It was then that I saw a huge sheet of the glass pulled slowly away from the hull. The crusty retired chief walked in - "we're not having a problem with that glass." Hmmm.

"Oh" I said "it's coming off?"

"Like dirty shorts on pay day, sir." Okaaaay. I love those old chief-isms, even if I don't get them right away.

We'll still be using the heat guns, but I was amazed to see that the glass was so easy to remove. Needless to say we are ahead of schedule, albeit slightly and very likely temporarily. Tonight I'll try to locate at least one heat gun and give it a go, see if it helps.

By the way, the planking underneath - beautiful. The smell of good cedar (although I still think they are some variety of fir) wafted around all evening. Fasteners are all easy to find and easy to loosen, showing little sign of corrosion or deterioration in the bungs, metal, or holes. (!!!!)

BT

Stabilization of Monomoy No. 3 will be delayed until the fiberglass is removed from No. 2. After that we will probably delay further, allowing time for the stem and sterpost reconstruction on No. 2 - after which both boats can proceed into re-framing and re-fastening together.

NNNN