Boat-Build Update: Whistling While He Works...

I jest only a smidge when I say that my favorite skipper leaves the house whistling like the less known eighth minion of Snow White. Heigh ho, heigh ho.

It's been a full few days at Boat Build Central. The process of painting a boat seems as slow as any human endeavor, ever. A metronome count of days: 
Spray on one coat of polyurethane. Tick.
Pause overnight (or more) for drying. Tock.
Sand. Tick.
Apply another coat. Tock
Pause for drying. Tick.
Sand. Tock.
Et cetera.
Et cetera.
​Et cetera. 

For Spawn of Frankenscot, the paint of choice is an automotive two-part polyurethane that OH Rodgers (aka Ninjee) sprayed on. Both guys used rollers and chip brushes to get paint onto the non-flats, corners, and so forth.

​Despite my hopes for safety orange, it looks as if the boat will remain basic paper white. 

Spiffy nonskid is in place on the topsides...Ninjee chose a specialty product to rough up the paint where crew might need to walk.  Coarse and medium silica sand from Imron mixed with a touch of grey pigment masked into place gives the non-skid its distinctive look. This texture covers the bow, the side decks, and is wrapped on the sheer where crew will need it for hiking with a trapeze. 

The aft section of the cockpit will require a few of those fetching bathtub safety stickers, as the non-skid does not extend to the "wading pool" on the lido deck. And yes, there's a second coat of paint missing on half of the lido –– the phrase "painting oneself into a corner" comes to mind –– give it a few more days. Tick. Tock.

What makes a sailboat a sailboat? Well, most people can point to that key indicator of sailing-ness: a mast. 

And Spawn, too, has one of them there sticky-uppy things. We made a road-trip for a scratch-and-dent Melges 20 mast last spring. No stranger to repairing carbon fiber rigs, Ninjee ground out and re-wrapped the crack that made the mast such a sweet bargain, and let it (Tick. Tock.) cure.  A set of shrouds from Marty Kulman of Quantum and a nice new forestay, plus Frankenscot's old spinnaker halyard allowed us to dry-fit the mast yesterday.

Aaaaaaaaand it fits, she concluded dryly. 

Derek at JTR re-tooled the hiking racks from Frankenscot for us, smoothing out the curves to fit Spawn.  Oh, the metal racks still vaguely resemble ADA-compliant hand-rails, but they make a very comfortable perch and now fit the hull like a pair of bespoke gloves.

With both racks in place, Spawn has a wingspan of just under 13 feet. I'm getting kind of a pterodactyl-at-the-ready vibe...