Set on low heat and simmer...

When last we left our heroes, they were ankle deep in epoxy and carbon fiber, building a 20-foot-long adventure boat for the 2026 Everglades Challenge event next spring.

My handsome skipper and his talented boat designer pal OH Rodgers had agreed to a plan and constructed the mold for the hull, the deck, and the tanks, as well other bits and bobs like the centerboard trunk.

They stocked up on two-part tropical epoxy (it cures slower than regular epoxy), yards and yards of carbon fiber and  fiberglass, plus rubber gloves.  And they made stuff. ​​

Consider a brief metaphor for boat-building: Imagine being at a supper party, where you've idly dabbed a finger into the puddle of melted wax at the base of a candle flame.

​There's a thin line, thermodynamically speaking, between wax that scalds and the stuff that's too cool to adhere to a fingertip. You're pretty good at this, however, and you've managed to make a smooth watch cap of wax for your index finger.

Now your quest becomes how and when to remove it. Wait too long and it's brittle and will crack into messy fragments. Go too soon, and the wax pulls and distorts.

In a nutshell, that is what it is to build a boat from a mold.

So when I suggest we take a moment to celebrate the good news was that each of the boat's components successfully parted company with its mold, I mean it. ​

  A breath in silence, if you please, to express our gratitude to the genius loci of the boatyard for this not inconsiderable success.

A hearty thank-you also to the gang of friends who helped.

What's next on the project?

​Summer vacation, actually. The hull and deck are stacked atop one another (but not yet attached) and trussed like the cargo box going into a tramp steamer.

But instead of going abroad, the boat has been hoisted like a particularly large piece of stage scenery into the very rafters of OH's barn.

Both of our intrepid builders have summer vacation plans, and the shipyard will shutter up for a few months.

And what of the weighty and unwieldy molds, such as the team spent so much time and energy creating?  

​They too hit the road for the summer: friend Tony Pocklington has carted them off so that he might build a sister vessel to Jeff's.  Twinsies!

So while the boat hovers in the literal wings, TwoBeers idly plans the mechanical details and specs of the water-ballast pumps he's hoping to install once the boat-building season comes back around.