More sanding..

When you've got 31 feet of water line, that means there's a fair amount of bottom.  Sanding to prep for new bottom paint might normally be a quick job, but in this particular case there are, at the least, several coats of paint preexisting in various conditions.  Never the less, an hour here and there will eventually add up - witness the before and after pictures from this morning.
             

I also sanded along the chine at the bow, not pictured here.

The hardest part of any project is making the time, and returning to it consistently.  This is something I still struggle with, but without consistency the project takes even longer.

Another interesting thing about this stage of sanding is that it's a lot more comfortable to do in the shade, so I've been focusing on the port side of the boat.  I'm going to have to start sanding in the evenings (or rotate the boat!) to get the starboard side sanded.

Look what the cat dragged in!

By "cat" I mean UPS delivery chick, and by "dragged in", naturally I mean delivered:

200 sweet sweet sheets of sandpaper goodness!  I spent today fiddling with other things (motorcycles) but Father's day is going to start with a nice dose of sanding, before the temperature gets into triple digits.

Sandpaper: a precious resource?

Back in March or April, I knew there was a lot of sanding on the schedule.  The box store had limited grits and quantities, so I ordered a box of 80 and a box of 220 from a local power tool supply and repair shop.  I made the order before I started on the porch roof project, because I knew the grits required would overlap.  I got a call that part of the order was in a couple weeks later - the 220 grit.  That's the second step naturally, so I said "call me when the 80 grit is in!".  A few weeks later, I get another call, this time the order is in for sure.  I go back, there's one box.  It's the 220 grit still, no 80 grit to be found.  I muddle through the porch ceiling with some 60 grit (luckily I ended up using deck stain, so the finish wasn't required to be as nice).  I completed that, and last weekend I used up the last of the 60 grit sanding some of the tough spots on the hull.  So here I am out of sandpaper again!

Yesterday I placed an order with an online firm for the 80 grit sandpaper, with any luck it'll be here next week.  More sanding pictures to follow!

To Be Perfectly Fair

To be perfectly fair to myself, it hasn't been 3 months since I've done any work on the Connie.  I did finish sanding and staining the porch ceiling last weekend, and my number one priority this weekend is to sand more bottom.  We did go out of town for 10 days, and I did slow down with a cold for a few days, but we're quickly moving past that and onto new projects.  Or at least more sanding.

I recently joined the Chris Craft Antique Boat Club - they have a forum that I've been monitoring since the boat first arrived, gleaning knowledge slowly.  One cool advantage of reading about other projects / maintenance / use is that you can see others facing similar challenges and succeeding,  I find it very motivating to catch a glimpse of others in similar situations...

In case of weather...

What is this pile of scrap, you say?  It turns out that it's the original weather cloths.  They're in a very fragile state, so they can't be used, but I plan to use them as a pattern when we get around to that stage of things.

The weather cloths snap onto the edges of the cockpit roof and sides, and provide a weather proof (resistant?) protection.  The previous owner called me a few weeks ago and told me he found these, plus the original owners manual (!) and the cabin key.  Naturally I was pretty excited to reunite these items with the boat.

Porch sanding still proceeds at a snail's pace, and I have more sand paper on order...

A detailed observation...

Anyone with a little knowledge of wood, or wooden boats, can immediately gleam from this picture an important detail:

It's not any part of a boat.  In fact, as I mentioned in my last post, it's the ceiling to my porch, and I've been sanding it little by little.  This particular shot doesn't show any of the new boards, but suffice it to say they don't match the existing color very well.  The blog has been quiet recently because there's been very little boat work since I started this sanding project.  With any luck I'll have it wrapped up soon, although I did manage to obtain something pretty neat that's boat related.  More about that soon...

A brief intermission...

My goal is to use this blog to document what I'm working on, and keep myself motivated, hopefully with a post or two a week.  This past week I haven't managed to do anything boat wise, because I've been working on my back porch.  Last winter, during the hard freeze Austin received, the water pipes feeding the spickets in the porch ceiling broke, necessitating some emergency repairs.  Finally it's time to close up the pine tongue and grove ceiling.  Once that's done it's back to sanding, sanding, sanding...