Apple Pie Tender

DAY 11 of building the Apple Pie (Actually it's a combination of 2 half days.)

One half day was spent working on the rig and sail and half a day was spent sanding and putting on a coat of paint.

It's still raining
Rudder assembly for the Apple Pie pram tender. All the pieces have had a second coat of epoxy.

Figuring out the layout of the sail onto the polytarp. It's helpful to see what the actual layout will be like.

In order to give the polytarp a bit of shape I made some darts. If I was assembling this sail from strips I would be doing some broadseaming instead. Lulu cat helps keep the tarp in position. I tacked the dart with 2 sided tape and put green tape on top to keep it in place until I start sewing. With the tape holding the darts it's easier to mark the polytarp fabric with my dimensions.

After sewing the darts, I put the tarp on the floor and marked my dimensions. I added enough to allow for turning over the seams. Corners get reinforced with patches. Everything gets sewn carefully. The sewing machine has been heroic. Once it's been properly set up and a large needle inserted it works like a charm. Some spots had double sided tape sticking out and I used talc powder on it so I could sew over it and not stick.

Hidden behind the videos, Lulu watches and prepares her quality inspection report. I expect she and Winston will discuss my efforts and present me with a deficiency report at the end. Cats are in charge of quality control.

The sail is finished and set up on the mast and spars. It seems to fit quite well. There is a slight curve top and bottom to allow for the bending of the top and bottom spars as the downhaul adds a bit of tension. The sail will set a bit low near the gunwales but that's the only way I could get enough sail area. The sail is about 27 sq ft. Still too small I think.

Finally it's not raining, so naturally I went sailing. Coming back I spent a couple of hours sanding. This removed a significant amout of primer. It's funny to put on a coat of paint only to remove most of it. After 3 days the primer could be sanded and did not gum up the sanding disk quite so much.

Sailing puts sanding in its proper perspective and I have less trouble accepting that this boat needs to get finished so I can go play. It's not about perfect finishes on quickly built tenders. Repeat after me, bumps are beautiful...
I taped off the gunwales to have a clean edge if I decide to varnish them which is likely.

The hull gets a good dusting and a quick wipe with a damp cloth. The first coat of paint goes on well and the hull is surprisingly smooth (except where it's not.) Immediately I start painting the word goes out to suicidal fruit flies who converge on the hull with wild abandon. Good quality paint goes on so nicely. This is Brightside polyurethane that I was going to use to paint the cockpit of the Tanzer, but the colour is too creamy so I'm using the leftovers for the dinghy. It dries hard and gives a lovely finish. Good quality paint is so nice to use.

It's Winston's turn to supervise. My yard is concrete, a remnant of the previous Italian owners. I lay a few feet of sod every spring for the cats and it's always a great success.

The paint did not cover the dark wood completely and I expect I will need at least another coat.
I have picked up some one eight inch aluminium strips to apply along the runners and on the skeg. This will help protect the rubstrips if I drag the boat on hard ground.

I have now spent a total of 81 hours building this pram dinghy and its sailing rig.

email: Christine

This web site reflects my personal ideas and doesn't represent anyone else's point of view. I'm not an expert boat builder and don't suggest that how I'm doing this is the best way, use your head and be careful.