The side-decks along the cockpit are complete and ready for the decking. John re-used the oak deck beams that previous owner Tom had made for alongside the chart house. He was able to shorten them and use them here. We’d replaced them when John put new carlins in for the chart house and changed how the deckbeams tied into the carlins. You can see the new deck beams and carlin along the chart house in the pic of David in the “more on deckbeams” blog posting before this one.
David alongside the boat as he works on final shaping of the deckbeams. Click on image for larger view.
I’ve been on a search for Irish Felt. Sample came today…it is not what I expected. It looks like, um, roofing felt that’s just a little bit thicker than regular roofing felt. Not as thick and soft as I thought it would be. This is 1/16″ thick, a little bit squishy/soft and a bit sticky with the bitumen. One side has a very light dusting of limestone powder. It is jute not flax and uses bitumen not pine resin/tar/pitch. In theory “Irish Felt” is made from flax with pine resins instead of petro products…I don’t know…I can see using it in some applications for Irish Felt–for example between worm shoe and keel or padding for tanks. Its more stretchy than regular roofing felt but not so stretchy that I could see it conforming nicely to sharp curves.
Here’s a pic of David holding the sample sent to me by the distributor:
