4 Days Work

I had 4 days in a row off work and spent large parts of all of them working on my boat. My Owens Flagship was built out of Honduras mahogany and mahogany plywood in 1963, and she was obviously well taken care of in her early years. She has a lot of problems now, but I'm getting her squared away slowly but surely.

I got the green paint on two coats, and bought the paint to do a third just for looks and gloss. I got one coat of bottom paint with some special additives of my own on. It's a secret recipe. I have the piant for at least one more coat on the bottom.

I rebuilt the roof, it still needs some epoxy (which I'm out of right now) to firm up some soft wood I left on the front. Hopefully I killed the rot, there was an actual capped mushroom, probably shitake, growing out of the aft end of the roof. It ate the whole back crosspiece, and softened a lot of the plywood. I'm probably going to paint the wood side with linseed oil and black copper oxide which I hope will stop anything the bleach didn't kill.

I rebuilt the side decking on the port side by the cabin, it required climbing in and out of the head about 50 times, and I'm not as happy with it as I had hoped, but I can walk on it without falling through, and I weigh about 190 lbs.

I tried to crank her up with no luck, the gas is really old, and I don't have a siphon or want to cut my only garden hose to drain the tank. I scrounged two batteries which the guy who gave them to me said were working just a couple weeks ago. I scrounged some glass for the windows. I got two coats of paint on the removable roof it needs about 4 more because it was really cracked. I looked at the cabin roof its in about the same shape, but I didn't get to it yet. I scrounged some mahogany I hope I can cut to put on my back rail risers. I scrounged the plywood to do the starboard decks. If you're wondering why I am doing so much scrounging it is because I am about broke, but that's another whole story.

I have so many irons in the fire at this point on this project it would be hard to name them all. I have the sanding about half done on the brightwork. I have tried to clean the vinyl that is on the middle part of the side of the cabin. I found a dowel below decks that will fit the holes, but it's not mahogany and it is straight grained instead of cross grained like a bung plug should be. I'm going to ask around at the lumber yard and see if they sell or can make the bungs I need.

I'm really tired out, and "down in my back", as some of the old folks in my family might say. It takes me about an hour of working to loosen up and be able to walk normally. Going to work is actually a rest break for me, and I haven't had to do that for several days. Anyway, here are some pictures of what is going on with the old girl.