Having the Pocketship back in the workshop is really fun again.
Last Summer I rushed my build to make the Texas 200. I left a lot of little cosmetic things undone. The interior being the main area of unfinished business. I also found a couple of spots that needed to be redone and paint touchups from honest use.
The most critical mistake I made in my build was I put 1/2" length screws to hold down my sail track on my mast. The track began to separate from the mast at the gaff intersection. The sitka spruce is a bit soft and combine that with short screws, turned out to be recipe for failure. I have the mast laid out on my bench and took out all the screws and cleaned up all the 3M sealant. I filled each hole with penetrating epoxy. This epoxy is really watery and hopefully will absorb into the wood and harden the surrounding wood for each screw hole. This combined with the longer screws, I hope things will be strengthened enough to keep the sail track screwsfrom pulling out again.
Another order of business was to build an outboard bracket as per the John C. Harris plans. It looked a bit rough, but after cleaning it up a bit with a belt sander it actually looks pretty good. I found doing the Texas 200 that there were a couple of harbors that were darn near impossible (for me anyway) to sail into and/or out. One harbor had a welcoming crew with power boats waiting for us to tow us in. I would have been in trouble without those guys. I have ordered a Honda 2.3 outboard. For some reason the 2.0 does not seem to be available. The outboard hanging off the back is a bit ugly but it does add a bit of safety. John sent me a really nice diagram on where to mount the bracket on the transom. I'll post it along with a picture of my finished product as soon as I get everything together for future builder's reference.
Another item is the companionway seat. I'll be building that next. I have some ideas on that that will make it a bit different from the ones I have seen. Every time I take someone out on the boat they immediately gravitate to the companionway to stand and usually end up sitting on the bottom edge of the entrance (not real comfortable). A seat would be nice. Mine will have cup holders.
Interior wise I will be making some deadlight trim rings. A bit more interior lighting and a fan. It gets hot in South Texas in the summer even at night. Mosquito netting on some drop board frames might be nice too. My netting fell down in the middle of the night last summer and let in a bunch of hungry mosquitoes. The tape I had holding the netting up let go...darn humidity.
I also installed a tiller extension. I found sitting in the same position gets a bit old after 10 or so hours on the water. An extension will let me change positions a little. Also for comfort I will add some seat cushions. Being out in the sun all day on this trip required every inch of skin to be covered. I found some pants made by Columbia that were long and made of a material that dried quickly. Well that was great except the inside of the pants had like a mesh bathing suit type liner. After all day on the boat without seat cushions that mesh felt like I was sitting on a cheese grater. Lesson learned.
And lastly get the trailer right but that's a whole 'nuther story.
Be Safe,
John