2nd Coat of Primer, New Skegs, and Seating Work

April 21, 2018

I had every intention of waking early and starting on the first of two coats of primer for the day; however, the deluge that was coming down at the time diverted my interest to the waffle iron, so I settled into buttery maple syrup with a side of waffle.

I was a bit annoyed with the set-back, but I decided that I would move on to doing some wood work that needed to get done.  I went ahead and mixed a pot of Interlux Primekote, and while the paint was  in its induction period, I cleaned the hulls of sanding residue.  

It didn't take me long to move across the two hulls with the 6" foam roller, and the excess paint was applied to the now freshly painted yet tacky hulls.  I cleaned up the painting materials and then headed back over to the shop.

I culled out a scrap piece of teak that would allow me to pull both skegs from it.  The teak was perfect for this application - a marine hardwood, with plenty of natural oils to protect it from moisture damage.

I used the old skeg from the blue Dhow as a pattern, tracing the form onto the new piece of teak stock.  I then used a jigsaw to remove the new skeg, making sure to cut a bit outside the cut line in order to allow me to fit the wooden skeg onto the hull. 

Within a few test fits and a bit of sanding to remove the high spots, I had the white Dhow's skeg nicely fitted along the bottom of the hull.

With the surfaces nicely mated, I then moved on to cutting out the handle.  I took a measure of the radius of the handle, transferred it to a compass, and applied the radius to the new skeg.  

With a hole saw sized to the proper diameter of the skeg handle, I remove two plugs on either end of the handle.  With the plugs removed, I unclamped the new skeg and connected the holes with the jigsaw.

I sanded all edges of the skeg handle and the skeg itself.  This completed the first of the two new skegs.  I repeated the fabrication process for the blue Dhow.

The new skegs were now complete, with the only remaining work to do is drilling for fasteners.  Once the priming is complete on both hulls, I will then mark and drill for the fasteners.  I purchased new fastener kits from The Anchorage, Inc. for both skegs, as they come with a rubber washer and are sized with specific size wood screws....it was just easier to order them than to take measurements, etc.  Anyway, with the skegs done, I grabbed the blue Dhow's seating (middle and forward) and returned to the shop.

I disassembled the seats - removing the daggerboard trunk to seat support from the middle seat, and the bronze seat knees from both seats.  I sanded the seats with 80-grits discs on the RO sander to prepare for epoxy work and varnish.  I decided to salvage these old mahogany seats as part of the vintage feel of the Dhow, so they will have some "classic charm" in their appearance. 

Total Time Today: 6.5 hrs