Reasons to be cheerful Part 5

Friday evening on the water. We had a little breeze, which was forecast to fill in to nice 10 knots. It didn't.

A bucket of toerail

At left is all that is left of the old toerail starboard side. Below is the new one in the shed ready to put on, and at bottom is the boat with it all done.

The sponsor and I got this side on, but we had a bit of a drama when it started to split. So we graved in a new piece and it looks good.

This evening we had a lovely time varnishing and drinking beer in the sunshine.

The external part of the boat is almost done!

An engine

I'm now the proud owner of a Seagull outboard - the Vespa for boats; Stylish, reliable, and a bit heavier than their modern counterparts.

This one's a Silver Century long shaft. At 6HP, it should do for Shemara

toerail

Finally got a toe rail on! In August the sponsor and I got some kauri stock and cut and bevelled it. I'd chipped off the old toerail on the port side because there was some rot there in spots.

I'd scarfed up two pieces as you can see in the pictures, but once the first bit was on, decided not to join themup, as the three quarter length toerail makes it look a bit more sporty I reckon.

Anyway, the same will happen to the starboard side before long (even though there's nothing wrong with it), as she looks a bit imbalanced now.

Mike gave me a hand. In these pics he's using a punch to finish driving the square shank copper nails I'd banged in. The sponsor turned up again a bit later and she can be seen trimming the bungs after I've got them glued. We managed to get one coat of varnish on before the encroaching dark and beer slowed us down.

The wind turned quickly to the South in the evening, bringing a lot of cloud and a great big rainbow. So took some pics of that too.