The deck

Stripping the deck was quite different from the hull. It took much longer but the time spent was worth it. Here I wanted to be somewhat artistic, but  I could not decide on a pattern so I unashamedly pinched the pattern in Nicks book for his Expedition Single, with touches of Ross Leidy ( you must check his site out ! ) and others I saw on the Web.   I spent an enjoyable evening laying thin strips of pine and mahogany on the forms to define a pattern, then adjusting them to provide for better shapes, then adjusting them again, and again, and again....

Eventually, I settled on a design and started stripping.  All went well, except that a piece of timber I had placed on a shelf above the boat fell down and broke off the first 4" of the stem. After a good cry, I scarfed replacement pieces on, and the mistake is only visible if you look closely.  I used some pine, which felt like steel compared to the cedar.

One thing which I found difficult was trying to gauge the colour of the different strips and judge what they would look like when put together and epoxied/varnished.  Oh well, we can only wait and see !