Almost-A-SCAMP Progress Report #3-1D . . . .

[Charles Brennan]

As all the details start avalanching on you, when getting closer to completion, you find yourself going back to something you only THOUGHT you had completed; like, actually fastening the oar lock fittings that you put in the oar lock holes, last week.
DOHHHH!!!! 
SOMEBODY    got a little carried away when it came time to fillet the joins, yessiree, want a nice strong epoxy pillar there, but maybe you should have thought a little more about fastener spacing.   
You used to worry about those kinds of things for over 30 years, back when you were a manufacturing engineer, and you know, COMPETENT!! 
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A little remedial epoxy filing, a little drill-bit angle-routing and it was fixed! 
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To keep all the myriad assembly details in check, anywhere you can; when you see something that could go on the boat . . . . put it on the boat!! 
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(Checks GPS: By golly!! It's Right!!     Best of all, I can read the numbers clearly, from the cockpit! 

Quick, now: What's the compass heading on this boat?? 
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I also have issues with compasses not mounted along the center line of the hull; makes for harder lubber line courses and course holding.

My next chore was to install the rub rails, starting with making bedding O-rings for the mounting screws.
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Putting the screws through the rails from outside was straightforward enough, but reaching up and behind the coamings was pretty tough for somebody with big hands working in tight small spaces, and required some innovation to get the fasteners started. 
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Don't let anybody tell you differently:  Boat Building is NOT for Sissies!! 
Don't even know how I managed to bang up my hand, installing such a simple easy-to-reach fastener! 
Might have been from a previous fastener and I just didn't notice; I sometimes tend to concentrate on things, to the point that people start to wonder if I'm "on the spectrum".
(NOT, BTW; my Mom had me tested, when I was like, five years old!) 
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Why was that pad-eye screw in the upper right corner, left long instead of being trimmed?!? 
Because it's also going to be a tie point for a cable clamp, to secure electrical wiring, that will be going past there.
Another advantage of "excruciating detail", over-thinking, and planning ahead and also, ya know, everything on a small boat has to do double duty!! 

For three REALLY tight rub rail screws, I enlisted someone with much smaller hands and much better manual dexterity: My Wife. 
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Now running out of things to screw onto the boat, I figured it was about time for some Boat Bling!! 
Where would an Irish Pennant be, without a Celtic Trinity Knot?!? 
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Why is there a gap on the front rub rails?    The forward two rub rail screws on each side are not fastened inside yet, and neither is the bronze closed-eye bow chock.
Gonna need a long, skinny, limber, Grandson for those last six fasteners.

I was concerned about getting good pintle alignment when installing the gudgeons and decided to use the rudder pintles as my alignment tool.
Then, when I start to tighten up all the gudgeon bolts, I won't be knocking anything cattywampus. 
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That rudder will be coming on and off, every time we take the boat out; it HAS to be smooth, reliable, and bullet-proof. 

Worked good.  Next up, was the swim ladder, also beach-boarding ladder for my wife.
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(Ladder retention clips not installed, yet.)

And finally, the outboard motor  mount and ladder clips.  A lanyard for deploying the ladder from the water level, will be installed later.
Great feeling,    not having those things kicking around on a shelf for a year, or so, any more.
It also means: Now I CAN'T lose them, every time I need them!!    I know RIGHT where they are!!! 
BOLTED ON!!! 
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Gotta do something about that hole in the upper left corner of the transom.
It's another one of those take-three-steps-back to do something, chores. 

Starting with wire:
Had to make my own 8 gauge twisted pair cable.
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12 twists per foot! Outstanding!    I can expect minimal magnetic fields affecting the tiller pilot compass, or EMI from the trolling motor.
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Paid for it, though.    It was a Bear to get through the holes in the bulkheads, that I put in two years ago. 
Just couldn't bring myself to go from a ½-inch hole, to a ⅝-inch hole, for fear of weakening the bulkhead and now, I was sorry. 
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But it finally got in and now it was time to prepare the butt connectors.
Big Fan of dielectric grease.    Squirt some in the connector and it makes a gas-tight seal. 
If oxygen can't get to the wires, the wires can't corrode. 
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Add in some heat shrink . . . . .
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 . . . . .  and what's this?!? 
It's called "hedging your bets"; it's a Z-fold, that is held fast with more heat shrink tubing.
If it is ever necessary to replace the plug, you simply slit the heat shrink and use the slack to wire up the new plug and then make another (slightly smaller!) Z-fold.
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Keeps from having to re-wire the boat, because the new plug doesn't reach. 

Looks pretty good and is the last hole in the transom that needed filling in. 
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Wanted more eye-nuts and I didn't want to remove the middle two nylocks and replace them with acorn nuts, because I didn't want the gudgeons to be able to loosen and move, over time.
So I simply capped the excess threads with some acorn nuts I had lying around.
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But, what does he need to secure, back there??!!?? 
Lunch hooks, chum bags, dive floats, drink bags . . . . . . .shall I keep going? 

♫   One of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not the same!  ♫
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Speaking of wanting more eye-nuts . . . . .
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 A ⅜-16 eye-nut, so if I ever have to tow somebody, I've got the hardware to do it! 

Hmmm . . . . . SOMEBODY    must have forgot to tape the underside of the nav light mount, when he painted Grand Banks Beige paint all over the transom cap! 
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Yup. That's about how big the wiring hole is.  DOHHH!!! 

As long as I'm screwing stuff  to the boat . . . .
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More grease on the LED lamp connections.

And the requisite bedding tape.
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All it needs now, is some wiring! 
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And Hey! How about that Celtic Trinity Knot?!?!? 

Did the stern light at the same time.
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Took a short fiberglass rod and tied some line to it, to fish through all the bulkheads at once
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So I could pull all the wiring back.
Two16 AWG's for stern light and tiller pilot, and a 12 AWG for the solar panel.
Why so big a wire?!? 
In case my battery replenishment numbers come up a little short (they are worst-case, very marginal). 
If I have to increase the size of the solar array, the conductors will already have the current capacity to deliver all those additional electrons, to the charging controller.
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Capped off the day, by installing all the bushings for the tiller pilot and the main sheet traveler.
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Probably going to be it for a while,    until this cold front blasts through and I can modify the Bimini top, install the flooring, the hatches and finish wiring everything up.
But I have to say: All the empty bags, packages and hardware boxes, are a sight to BEHOLD!!! 

Charles Brennan