The Resurrection of Hobyn

Friday, July 18th, 2008

A change in process (or, small projects don’t make sense)

So with the toe rail plinth pretty much done, the tiller bumper roughed out, and the cabin sole in shambles, the starboard side sort of faired, the hull to deck joint needed its finishing round over and the aft scroll work needing its fairing, I came to the start realization that I was at the cross roads of a hundred tiny projects that are keeping me all over the place. The result is the feeling that I’m not getting anything done that’s really substantial. All to often I find myself mixing a tiny batch of fairing compound when I KNOW that the entire deck could use a coat or two. To compound my frustration I had this sudden urge to pry off all of my deadlights to see just how new portlights would look. An hour later with my head out the now empty deadlight I said “ok, time to change process”.

Luckily this coincided with lunch time so I grabbed a sandwich, a nice big sharpie, and the plywood portlight blanks I had cut out and drew out my plan of attack.

I drew everything up and then decided that 2 weeks per project, only that project would be a good pace. The breakdown is as follows:

1. engine install and cabin sole
2. sanding deck, patching holes, putting in portlights
3. toerail install, sanding hull, sanding new deck joint
4. bowsprit

8 weeks of work but it gets me into September ready for priming/painting and cabinet building for the winter. An aggressive schedule for sure, but I like it that way.