Well, my fullness from Thanksgiving has finally subsided and I’ve had some time to work on the San Francisco Pelican a bit. I’ve fabricated the centerboard trunk and am fitting it to the keel. Since this boat is epoxy coated plywood for the most part, I made sure the inside of the trunk was epoxy coated before sealing it up. I also put a coat of bottom paint on the inside before gluing the sides together, because it’s not the easiest thing to do after the fact. It’s kind of hard to see in the picture, but that’s black bottom paint on the inside of the trunk.
I was able to get some of the reinforcement for the deck framing installed as well. These blocks add some stiffness to the relatively thin plywood, provide framing for the mast pass through, and give convenient places to mount hardware like cleats and such.
I have a boat in the shop for some needed winter maintenance that we built 4 or 5 years ago now. It’s a traditional prewar Atkins design that we built using modern wood/epoxy methods. She could use a paint job maybe, but she still looks great! Looking forward to getting her ship shape. Next week, back on the priority project, the Herreshoff 12 1/2 restoration.