Changes to mizzen sheet cleats

I have made one of those small and obvious changes, where you wonder why you never did it before. My mizzen sheet cam cleats are fixed on the aft edge of the cockpit coaming. They work fine, but the tail of the sheet often ended up loose, down at the far end of the cockpit, and I had to scrabble around looking for it. I looked into various ways of securing the loose end, but they all got in the way of handling the line. I suddenly realised all I had to do was replace the cleat with a small fair lead on the coaming, and move the cleats themselves further forward in the cockpit. The bases of the boom gallows form a perfect protected spot (you can't lean back on the cleat there). Took all of five minutes to sort out.

Daisy G is all taped up, ready for the hull to be painted, but it is too cold to think of doing that just now. Hopefully the weekend will be warmer.

Raising the cockpit floor boards

I have always wanted to be able to raise the cockpit floor boards up level with the side benches, to be able to use the area for a sleeping/lounging in the sun platform. I didn't want to fit supports on either side, as they were likely to be a nuisance. I made a chance discovery over the winter. If I simply place my big flat fenders on edge either side of the cockpit well, they are just about the right height to hold up the floor boards. To raise both sets of boards I needed to cut back the aft ends of the four central planks, to fit round the outboard. I have finally got round to doing this and it all seems to work really well. The platform  is not absolutely flush with the side decks, but they are cambered in any case. I think that a couple of bunk cushions will lie very comfortable over the top. There is even room for me to lie across diagonally, and I am 6' 3", so that is quite an achievement.

The gap between the aft section of the floor boards and the outboard will actually make it much easier to fit the outboard lock, which is a further benefit. I had a panic last year when I clicked the lock in place, to discover that to unlock it, I had to fit the key from underneath, and there wasn't room to get it in. I had to squeeze about, getting all of the floorboards out, before I could get the key in, but even then it was a struggle. I have changed the lock to a hardened cylindrical one, where the key goes in at the end, but it is a relief to think that I can still use the old lock if I need to.

Testing the canoe's skin

I have a small test piece of the covering linen which I have tried pulling across part of the hull. It touches all of the stringers neatly and lies smoothly. It is very easy to pull it out of shape, so it will need to be handled carefully.

nearly finished painting the cockpit in Daisy G. Just need to paint the floor, and then all the painting left will be the exterior of the hull.

Sanding the canoe (2hrs)

Have been sanding all of the canoe frame as I realised I need to put a coat of varnish on before the linen skin. Slow and tedious job, with all of those sticks, but it gave me an opportunity to clean up all of the glue smears around the joints. I'll be pleased I did it as the smears would have shouted out to me ever after otherwise.

Painting and re-roping Daisy G

I've started back on the paint work over the weekend. All of the external scrapes are filled and smoothed and I have painted them with grey under coat. I am going to over paint the whole hull then, it really needs it this year. Then got into cockpit and I have sanded and put a first coat on all the vertical sides to the cockpit, but it will need a second if not third. Also refitted the jib furling line and the kicking strap. So bits starting to go back on. It is only about seven weeks until launch date, which is not all that much working time. But the weather at the moment really doesn't seem springlike at all.