It was April and I was sure that the weather is going to improve drastically compared to March. I was wrong. We had only one weekend with nice temperature and sunshine and I was able to work with hull sanding. I hoped that I could finish this job and I will be able to apply the first water barrier coat. I didn’t finish sanding and this task is nightmare and was postponed to May. I was very upset because I have had more than enough of sanding. My mood improved a lot after I read Phil’s article “Fine Tolerance and the North West Passage”. This boat is really stuck up there because of the weather. From one point of view, April was a very excited month, from another point of view; April was boring with not too much to report.




Dredger already started working.

Place where new pier is going to be built.
What was exciting during April? – Summer dock - slip number 12 at pier number 9 has been assigned to me. It looks like the SeaGoat will have new a “home” by summer this year. Port Whitby Marina decided to build another floating pier with 20 slips. Dredger already started working. There is very shallow water, less than 4 feet, in the part of the bay where the new pier to be built. After this operation the water to be approximately 6 feet deep that is more than enough for the SeaGoat, but just enough for boats with the fin keel.
From time to time I’m checking my schedule to find out what was done and what supposed to be done next.

Barbara and my father posed in front of catamarans.
This month I did it as well. Not too much was done during the winter, especially compared to PDM, the catamaran manufacturer next to me in marine. During the winter they built 14 catamarans – around $300,000 each – and brand new shiny flotilla was launched this month here. But what has been done for the SeaGoat? – I finished SSB grounding. All cupper straps have been soldered together in order to have continuous conductor. I also installed all head furniture. Now it looks very nice after is mounted in place. In the basement it looked a little bit strange. After all the snow was gone from the deck I found out that I have hundreds of hair cracks line along the joints between the deck and the cabin and pilothouse sides. I didn’t know why but I became grieved at it. I started thinking

120 bolts already installed.



very hard to find out what I did wrong. It did not take a long time to find out that I totally forgot to put any fasteners in this area. All cabin and pilothouse sides were not fixed to the deck structure at all. I was ashamed of myself. I was even more ashamed of myself after I found out that I didn’t install deck bolts in transom area. During one rainy Saturday I installed 120 SS machine bolts to fix it.






SSB ground straps connected together.

Connection through the bulkhead.
It was obvious that something was wrong with my memory. From now on I have a boatbuilding log on board. I’m writing down, every time, what was done, what must be done in the future, what I’ve found wrong etc. – in short, I have my extended memory on board now. I started working with the skeg. The idea was to cut fiberglass end of skeg and install SS shoe, fixed to fiber glassed timber – white oak. I’ve cut the skeg, drilled holes and prepared PVC tubing as inserts. I couldn’t seal the timber because of the very low temperature outside. When it wasn’t raining I was sanding the hull. This time I used glass foam sanding blocks. By end of April I still needed two days to finish this job. I hope that May is going to be more fruitful month.
See you then.

Original skeg.

Skeg is already cut out.

Dry fit of skeg shoe

Skeg is ready to install the shoe.

First furnitere.

Refrigerator