Jersey Girl

Oct. 2, 2017. Hanging the side panels temporarily, to check for fit. By the way, the topmost edge of the side of a boat is called the "sheer." A plank is called a "strake." These three pieces, when joined, will be the "sheerstrake." In the second picture, you can see the bow section from the inside. I'll use a pencil to trace the outline of the curve of the bow, then cut that section of the sheerstrake on the line I scribe.

Oct. 10, 2017: Jersey Girl's port side panels fit perfectly. (Port is left; starboard is right. In this picture, Jersey Girl is upside-down. When she's turned right-side up, this will be the port side.) Later today, I'll drill and countersink a couple hundred pilot holes, then screw and glue everything together permanently.

Houseboat look-back to Sunday, July 1, 2018 – There came a time over the summer when friends and neighbors showed up to help me flip over Jersey Girl. A few days ago, my friend Jerry handed me a packet of photos he made of the occasion, a sequence of 13 pictures. Here they all are, from the hull upside down to right-side up. Before the festivities started, I used a heavy-duty motor hoist to lift the bow first and then the stern, so I could remove the four sawhorses on which I had built the hull. Then, we raised one side so I could slide six movers’ dollies under that edge. Next, we rolled the hull all the way over to one edge of the driveway, then lifted it up on that edge and slid it over even further. Finally, we s-l-o-o-o-o-l-y lowered Jersey Girl’s hull, right-side up, onto a bunch of scrap tires. Many hands made light work.

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.

Houseboat update (with a slight course correction), Thursday, December 6, 2018 -- As I tuck Jersey Girl in for winter hibernation, I must not forget Thistledew, the sailing dinghy I built more than 25 years ago. She's still in great shape, but if I don't tilt her up to let any water run out her transom scupper, freeze/thaw cycles will quickly take their toll. I haven't had a chance to sail her for at least four years, and I have to decide whether to make use of her or let her go to a new owner.