Build log for Muscongus Bay Lobster Smack by Don Ricardo

[11320 Titanic]

Trying log again.
I bought some dowels for masts and spars, laid them on the spar holder, held them steady with tape and ran a pencil atop the dowels. This gave me a nice straight line for attachments. Rolling the dowel over, centering the drawn line on the V of the spar holder and drawing a second line preps both sides of the spars for fore and aft. Now I will drill whatever holes I need for the eyebolts. When the smack arrives the spars should be ready to go. This also works if you need to divide your spars into quarters. If you will notice, since the spar holder blocks fit so snugly, I had not glued them, and to mark the dowels, I inserted the blocks into what the directions would consider inverted.

 

[11320 Titanic]

Hope you all had an enjoyable Thanksgiving.

 

[11320 Titanic]

I have my drill clamped into my vise, ready to round off the mast with the proper taper. Then add the lines, fore and aft for placement of eyebolts and cleats. At 82, going up and down stairs is problematic, and the Captain will not allow me to bring the vise upstairs.
When she pulls out the vacuum cleaner though, I get down there fast or she will vacuum the floor, and any fallen parts are gone forever. And she will collect more dollars!
After morning coffee, I will resume work on the mast spars.

 

[11320 Titanic]

The Lobster Smack arrived today.

 

[11320 Titanic]

The first thing to do is to check for pieces falling from the sheets, one way I lost some pieces on my first attempt. A roll of scotch tape will cure that.
Is it advisable to lacquer the sheets before starting? The water in the acrylic paint seems to affect some of the balsa parts. Do you paint parts before assembly, or after?
My Captain is a dustoholic, and vacuums every thing, so this time, unless I am actually working with a part, it stays in the box.