Judy P's Tickle Trunk

… or Saint Peter to the Rescue.

Last night I was wondering who is the patron saint of boatbuilders. It is, I discovered, Saint Peter. He must have been working over-time and I hope he gets a big fat paycheck or at least a little upgrade on the gilding on his harp, because he came through for me without my even asking. Coincidentally, two of the nautical folk in my family have been named Peter; my Grandfather the schooner builder, and my brother Peter, who can think outside any box you can throw at him. Indeed, in the midst of my woes this morning I thought to myself “what would Peter do?” It is his birthday today, my brother not the saint, and this blog entry is dedicated to him. He shares my passion for wooden boats.

So the woes of last evening’s blog have all been addressed successfully. Not necessarily easily but things are looking up. What did I learn today?

1. Sleep on it. Things generally look better in the morning. You’re allowed to get mad at it, disgusted with it and contrary about it, but make sure you do it late in the evening and don’t let it interfere with sleep. By the time you get up you should be ready to get back on the horse. Which wasn’t easy for me today because the thermometer in the tent when I started was thus:

2. a heat gun makes things hot. So don’t touch the blade you are using next to it or aim in anywhere near the snaps on your coverall lest you brand yourself.

3. Practice forgiveness. The epoxy did and so should I.  Once heated those accidental fillets cleaned up with a little (maybe more than a little) elbow grease.

4. trust the people who have some experience with this. The boatbuilding forum had the answers to all my issues and despite my skepticism, they turned out to be right on the money. Now my epoxy, which was crystallized and cloudy last night, is thin and restored after sitting in hot water under a black garbage bag in the blazing sun. The crap I put on the deck sections was wiped and sanded and treated with denatured alcohol and re-epoxied and looks just fine.

I also learned from reading the forum that my epoxy was running, not because it was too thin, but because it was too thick. And that in the places where I want it to look nice it can be scraped with a cabinet scraper. But that’s a job for another day. I am just pleased that things were resolved and now I can hopefully move forward. There will be a boat.

It’s all good.

© Judy  Parsons 2014