A couple questions regarding holes in the spars and tabernacle:
1. When are builders drilling the holes for the bowsprit, mast, and tabernacle pivots? It seems logical to drill the holes in the tabernacle while the two sides are together for final shaping, taking the locations for theses holes from the plans (pg 250) and yet the PS manual photos do not show holes drilled at this point. On the other hand, if the mast base is to rest on the bowsprit, perhaps it's best to wait until the various pieces are in place on the boat to drill tabernacle-and-bowsprit or tabernacle-and-mast holes in single passes....
2. These holes (as in all holes in the boat) are drill-fill-drill projects with the final hole being drilled through the hardened epoxy filling a larger pre-drilled hole. In that case, drilling these holes in the spars while the pieces are on a bench makes most sense to me.
3. Tabernacle drain holes are in the same category. Why not drill-fill-drill these out while the pieces are on the bench, even before gluing sides and back into the finished unit.
4. What about chamfering the aft base of the tabernacle (rather than rounding it over "to fit in the fillet between bulkhead and deck in the anchor well," pg 251) to provide a channel for water egress instead of holes in the sides of the tabernacle?
4. Are all the holes for attaching sailing hardware drill-fill-drill holes?
Thanks for any advice or experience.
All the best,
Mark Nunlist