Jersey Girl

Houseboat update, Friday, September 7, 2018 -- Today was an important day. I laid out the basic shape of Jersey Girl's roof line, using a flexible batten bowed between the two aft-most outer roof posts. First, I used clamps and plastic squaring forms to make sure the posts were absolutely plumb, relative to the hull. Next, I did the same for the two inner posts, which will be fastened to the transom. Then, I fastened the batten to the 35-degree sloped top of one of the outer posts and and bent it in pleasing curved shape to the top of the other outer post. Where the batten crossed the faces of the two inboard posts, I scribed lines with a pencil. I will use measurements I derive from this setup to lay out a work-table jig to guide me in laminating multiple roof beams that will exactly replicate the curve you see here. But that won't be the final shape of the roof. As you'll see in future log entries, the central portion of the roof will be raised by about six inches. To do that I'll cut each laminated roof beam into three parts -- but I am getting ahead of myself. Stay tuned, and you'll see.

Houseboat update, Thursday, September 20, 2018 -- Back to work on Jersey Girl. Over the past week, I have almost finished the poop deck. I'm as scatologically inclined as anyone (OK, call it arrested development) and I get a kick out of writing "poop deck," but it's not what you think. It means the highest, aft-most deck on a vessel. It comes from an old French word for exactly that, "poupe." On Jersey Girl, it'll be a nice place to sit and enjoy the fresh air with a sunset cocktail, perhaps, or a place to set up my easel to do some plein air harbor painting. It'll be covered by an extension of the arched cabin roof, so it'll even be available to use during a nice summer rain. The poop deck will also be surrounded by a curtain that can be drawn closed for privacy, when I want to take a shower, for instance. Did I mention I am planning a solar-heated shower installed in the center of the roof arc? What about drainage, I hear you say. That will be taken care of, as you will see. Stay tuned.

Houseboat update Part 2, Thursday, September 20, 2018 -- Speaking of drainage from the poop deck, what's to prevent water from running down into the cabin? I'm installing a raised sill with a saddle of white oak, a beautiful, tightly-grained, tough wood that I think will resist wear over the years. To prevent water from leaking across the saddle under the aft cabin door, I am angling the red cedar undersill down toward the stern, so any water will drip away from the cabin, not into it. To do that, I'm making a series of angled cuts, using a Japanese pull saw, then a hammer and chisel to knock out the waste blocks between the cuts. It probably would have been easier to cut the angle into the cedar with a table saw, but I didn't think of the potential for inward water flow until after I glued it into place. Yet again, the opportunity for problem-solving.

Houseboat update, Friday, September 21, 2018 -- Jersey Girl's poop deck is virtually complete, now that I have installed a white oak door sill leading into the cabin below and just forward. What could be more natural than moving from the poop deck, which has nothing to do with poop, to the head, which does? In the second photo, you can see the framing in a compartment on the starboard side of the aft end of the cabin, which support a flat floor in the head. I don't know anyone who would relish a squat on the pot while sitting on a slope, which is the shape of the hull bottom. Flat and level is the way to go. By the way, I've seen WCs in New York City apartments smaller than this. So we're living large, folks.

Houseboat update, Monday, September 24, 2018 -- The floor of Jersey Girl's future head was glued and screwed into place today. I love the grain pattern in this plywood, and I may decide to leave it exposed rather than go to the trouble of fastening individual floorboards to the top of it. It's luan, sometimes inaccurately called Philippine mahogany, produced from the same tree we can thank for the crap quarter-inch underlayment available at big-box home centers. For years, the word among professionals was, "boat builders do not use luan." Now, thanks to new cutting and production methods, luan is a wonderful alternative to the more traditionally used African species, okoume, at a fraction of the price. I started this boat three years ago using okoume and I rather hide-boundedly stuck with that wood for the first two years. I'll use luan to finish it.