Now progress is heating up, along with the Spring weather. The transom has been epoxy saturated to strengthen and stabilize it, and a custom designed aluminum cap has been installed. The gunwales have new vertical grain fir caps, partly as a foundation for the coamings to come, and partly to straighten the starboard one, which had been formerly bent and kinked.

The base for the new seating has been set in place: more details on that later, but it’s a design to allow four adults to sit comfortably, to provide some stowage, and then convert to allow the dogs a place to relax and sun out of the bilges.

The new outboard has been clamped in place, mainly for lack of a better place to store it. The 20 h.p. four stroke should provide about a 20 mph top speed, considering the narrow, flat hull shape, and a very comfortable 15 mph cruising speed. The idea is to get out and see a lot of these incomparable cruising grounds, and do some gunkholing, not blast from one crowded anchorage to another, as seems to be the style. With that in mind, you can also see the custom made oarlock sockets, for the “ash breeze” as its sometimes called.

The windshield replacement was a gift from friends at GlassSmith in Victoria, made for a late model Austin Healy. It may be a bit narrow, but with a provenance like that, how can we not use it? Here it’s propped up to test the site lines and start planning the support frame for it.

Towards the bow, on the deck, you can see the original bow light, a new burgee socket, a new electric horn, and then the original cleat, in that order. The whole thing is sitting on a dolly, made from some construction grade lumber, 3 hardware store casters, and the old seating still doing duty as bunks. This allows it to be rolled out of the shop to make room for other projects, and rolled back in to be locked up and dry overnight.