Greetings from Northeast Indiana! It's amazing that it's been eleven months since I last updated the blog. I feel badly, but after working all day on the boat it's not fun to spend more time working on the computer posting photos.

Cold weather last November drove me out of the barn and I wasn't able to get back to the boat work until April of this year. At this point, the interior is about 80% complete: the bulkheads are painted, trim is back in, headliners are in, the bunk seaboards are in, the galley cupboards are in, and nearly all the carpentry is finished (just a couple of small pieces to shape). I still need to build a new companionway hatch and ladder, as well as the engine-room door.

We had originally hoped to keep more natural wood, but the years of bilge water staining and sunbleaching through open hatches and portholes made it impractical. We actually like the off-white interior with the teak trim and mahogany panels below waist height. It's a yacht look common to many traditional boatbuilders in the Northeast and was common in the late 19th century. All the cupboard doors and drawer faces are oiled teakwood but won't be in until almost the end.

The pilot berth and navigation station on the starboard side are nearly ready for the laminate countertops (October project). Since the photos, the pilot berth seaboard has been painted off-white and the mahogany caprail has gotten a fourth coat of clear poly.

I chose to move the barometer (U.S. Navy, 1942, of course)

to the navsta, but the Navy deck clock remains on the port

side of the main salon. I also built a mahogany binocular box

and a similar box for navigation instruments (not visible). All of the painted mahogany trim pieces that are screwed in place are meant to be removable for access to the DC wiring beneath it. The headliner panels will all get trimmed out with stained mahogany edge strips once all the cabin-top fittings have been permanently installed.

The galley cupboards have been completed

and painted China White. The shelves are angled,

or sloped, at 15 degrees to keep contents from

spilling when the boat is heeled. I designed them

to be completely removeable for cleaning and access to a port-side 110VAC line that runs beneath the raised front edge. The front trim panels for the galley and the navigation station, as well as the rear bulkhead, will all be painted the same off-white with teak engine room door edging and teak doors. The icebox liner will be a major winter project for installation in the early spring. The denim-blue laminate countertops will go down in October.

The V-berth came out nearly the way I visualized it. Once the cushions, light fixtures, fans

oil lamp and bookrack are installed it will be finished. They are currently boxed or wrapped and waiting on the final touches. I hope you can see the caprails on the bunk seaboards. They

are laminated in mahogany with a thin center stripe of oak - the small center cap drove me nuts and is nine pieces of wood. The raw wood step will get a finish coat and a piece of carpet for those chilly mornings at anchor, finished off with a piece of teak edge trim.

The head is painted out in off-white wainscot and "barley" yellow upper bulkhead panels just to break up the monotony of the white. The small searails for the shelves have been painted but are set aside for later installation. The piece of pine is just a temporary brace for the deckbeam cap strip. The lower cabinet doors are teak, and the countertop is the same "denim blue" laminate. The sink will get a chromed-brass fresh water hand pump to promote water conservation.

The medicine cabinet has been built, nearly 11 inches deep, with sliding doors. The trim is teak and the doors are off-white. Behind the cabinet is the head plumbing. The seacocks that go beneath the sink cabinet have been removed, overhauled, lubricated, and are ready to be reinstalled next month.

Speaking of fresh water, the bilges have been painted out, the two 40-gallon poly water tanks installed, and since the photos were taken, I've run all the fresh water lines to both the galley and the head, and a vent line runs up beneath the portside dinette seat and cabinet. When I got the boat, the single tank was just held in place by gravity and had nothing to secure it against the rolling or pitching of the boat.

Each of the fresh water lines has a check valve to keep water from running back into the tanks, and has a line filter to keep any sediment out of the lines.

I'm about to take a three-week break, but by December I will have the interior totally finished, plumbing complete, electrical runs tied into the breaker panel, the cabin top painted out, and the exterior fittings installed. Spring will see the final electronics installation; hull painting; the new engine, bowsprit, and boomkin; repainted and rewired mast and boom; and the rigging inspected, overhauled and replaced, as necessary. Our target "splash" date is July 4th, 2010, but since every date slips, I suspect it will be more like Labor Day weekend. Stay tuned!