Team Seacats

Yes, I realized tonight that I can see a light waaaayyy down the tunnel.  If we’re lucky, it’s not the headlight of a train!

I guess when you work on a long term project over so much time, you rarely (well, I do anyway), pick your head up and look ahead.  Tonight, I looked at the boat and thought that I could be within a couple of weeks of a test sail.  I have ordered what should nearly be the last of the knic-knacs for the boat, a 2mm tap, some 2mm screws, nuts, washers, a 4-40 tap, etc so I can make some of the hardware I need.  By the time I purchase two miniature turning blocks at $8 each, I can easily make them and buy the tools required for less.

Tonight I present the pictures of the installed radio tray…its a bit dusty and needs some cleaning but here it is…also shown with the hatch lip I installed over the weekend (not terribly pretty yet).

I didn’t spend much time with it this evening, but I did work out the geometry of the sheets, main and jib sheeting points, and the other related hardware and control lines.  Tomorrow I’ll take the sail rig into the shop and finish the rig by shortening the booms, tying up the outhaul grommets, and adding the sheeting points.  As for the boat, if my tools come in tomorrow, I’ll get the deck hardware mounted and it’s going to be time for some primer.

The aluminum machined mold for the keel bulb is not going to be done terribly soon so I’m going to rebuild the plaster mold we made late last year using the same PVC plug.  The lead, once cast, will require a little more finish work but it won’t be too bad.

I should make a list (edit: geesh, I keep adding to this):

• Install sheeting hardware (must cut temporary access hatch in bow since the Team Seacats dummy sealed up the main bulkhead before the wood reinforcement was in place up front). need taps for final hardware install
• Make a slew of bowsies
• Install sheeting points on the booms, replace temporary Dacron lines with spectra including outhaul grommets – do some eye-splicing if there is time
• Build the main boom vang
• Install rudder servo, rudder linkage, and linkage boot
• Mold new lead bulb, machine for strut, cut and drill strut, make keel fin (this could take some time)
• Primer, Paint, wetsand, clearcoat, wetsand, buff
• Sail

Oh and if you noticed the picture quality improved, it’s because the replacement camera charger arrived…and not 3 hours after I found the old one (in the closet with the spare light bulbs of all places – told you I left it somewhere stupid).