I've been making the deck beams all week.  I am embarrassed that it should have taken so long to do what most people would have knocked up in a couple of days.  My only consolation with the length of this project, is that I am still working from money put by and not (yet) digging into capital.  (And my capital is growing faster than I'm drawing down on it, so bankruptcy is still at a distance).  But I plod on and am essentially enjoying the project, so I guess that's the main thing.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but when I mocked up the deck some time ago, I decided that while the headroom amidships was beyond ample, by the time I was at the region of the galley counter, I was going to be getting a crick in my neck, so I decided to raise the whole lot onto rather than alongside the bulkheads.  This gives me a wee bit of a at the gunwale detail, but I think is worth it.  Anyway, once I'd made and sanded them all, I offered the beams up (really, to give myself a boost) and like the looks of my suddenly-reduced-in-size boat. 

Many thanks for that, Gary.  After the mammoth tabernacle building sessions

I'm back on my own.  I've been making deck beams, which gives me wonderfully illusory feelings of speed and progress.  The reason for this, is that having finished the tabernacle, I wanted to build a 'mast step' for it.  But because it's tapered, it had to be cut to the correct length before I could make the mast step.  To cut it to its correct length I had to know where the deck would be.  I have no measurements to tell me this, and besides, things don't always match the plans!  So then I had to work out where the deck would be but to do this I had to know exactly how thick the beams would be and to do this I had to make the deck beams.  So, that's what I've been doing.  But before I can fit the deck beams, I will need to do the gunwale details, which involves gluing more cedar onto the edge to the plywood and planing it all to fit.  Then (let's be realistic) I will have to fit the bulkheads to the deck beams. 

Anyway, here's a nice pic of a stack of deck beam centres:

And may I just take this opportunity to say how much I hate the Wild Apricot platform when it comes to putting photos into my album and then trying to share them!!!!!

Right, let me go and get on with building this damn boat.

David Tyler wrote:

Is Pete putting the pivot at the top of the tabernacle, or at the heel, as I've been advocating recently? The latter would work on Siblim, as there is no raised deckhouse, and would avoid having to make a clamp-on band for the mast.

Pete Hill was there  - the world expert in building tabernacles for junks - and having foolishly offered to 'help' build mine, has been here putting in the hours.  Dieter Isenhardt also briefly joined the SibLim Club by helping Pete saw up and put through the planer, two large pieces of douglas fir that I bought a little while ago for the job.  200 x 45, they planed up nicely and we've managed to dodge around most of the knots.

Needless to say, Pete's been doing most of the work and I've just helped with gluing and glassing.  In the meantime, I've been finishing off the foredeck - one of those jobs I can pick up and put down.

Here is a photo of the first stage of tabernacle building:

I'm afraid I don't have time to post more today.  The other recent photos of fitting out are in this album.

David Thatcher wrote: You want to get the boat in the water this decade - rather than drawers, what about storage bins? I think if I was building the boat I would be looking for some nice storage bins from somewhere like Payless Plastics and then building shelving to suit. You could even hide the storage bins behind some sliding cabinet doors as I have done in the galley on 'Footprints'. I have managed to create a lot of extra storage this way. Just an idea from someone who always tries to find the quick solution!

This decade?  Well, possibly ;-)

The boat is much 'straighter' and more (dare I say) slab sided in the galley.  Boxes may well work here and could be a great way of accessing the remote corner locker.