Kaimusailing

The rigors of reaming out the rudder pin holes convinced me to try something less strenuous the next day. The weather was getting warmer and St. Marys famous bugs were swarming for attack. It's time to make bug screens. I had picked up a roll of "no-see-um" screening, with a mesh of 20X20, and now began making screen frames out of lath, using the multitool with halfmoon blade to cut the lath, and hot melt glue to stick it all together. This isn't the beautiful screen frames that Ron, the carpenter, are making, out of an exotic cedar with many coats of varnish, these are rustic rough unvarnished frames. Custom fit, though. And they do the job. The two forward hatches over the two forward twin berths were now screened and each hatchway had a new dropboard made of screening. The weather would be hot and buggy, but we would have ventilation and no bugs, I hope.
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I revisited Sara Cavanaugh's blog, Sailtoconnect, at blogger, and enjoyed her continued journey through Florida, Cuba, Bahamas, and back to Florida. Her many guests got a good dose of sailing, including a 30 knot North wind against the Gulf Stream crossing.
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Another solution to the bug problem is slathering Avon Skin so Soft all over. The bugs do not like it. I bought a wholesale amount. I will be ready for the bugs.
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I made a jig to ensure the new rudder gudgeons will be all lined up. It consists of a 2X3 with a row of PVC pipe stand offs, each one capped off with a half round piece of PVC. The PVC was chosen to have the same inside diameter as the outside diameter of the rudder pins. The 2X3 and PVC pieces were all put together with hot melt glue, a quick method of assembly. The accuracy of the line up was tested with a piece of 1" prop shaft, about 6 feet long, not long enough to hit all the test points, but long enough to ensure that they all were in line, by moving the shaft from one end of the jig to the other.
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One side of the jig has three test points and the other has five. The three correspond to the three places where the rudder gudgeons fit between the hull gudgeons. The five correspond to one position where both hulls have an intact pair of gudgeons, and two positions that will need to be tested by a pair of test points. At each test point the jig will ensure that a piece of 1" dowel will be in correct position as the build up of the hull fills in the space between the dowel piece and the hull. After the build up sets up, fiberglass woven roving will be wrapped around the dowel and alongside the hull. Three layers of roving will be used. On the rudder, cutlass bearings will be used instead of the dowels and they will remain in the build. When it is all finished, the rudder pins will be driven through the gudgeons and the rudders will be attached to the hulls.
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The picture is of the jig getting built. You can see the five test points facing up and the three facing down.