That is the boat we built. Have a good spring!

Its the end of the regular work week, and we have only one left. I think my lamination skills have advanced more this week than any other. I am still working with Andre, and our main task was to finish the tabbing around the mast step, so the entire area would be ready for post cure. And we did it. By the end of Wednesday we completed five separate laminations. One on Monday, two on Tuesday, and I did the final two by myself with Andre wetting out on Wednesday. It was quite tough to laminate ten ply with my head upside down in a 600 mil cube. but eight hours later they were both done and I felt pretty accomplished.

We have spent the rest of the week prepping small deck beam laminations that the other crews didn't finish. We should have all that done by Tuesday, and we will see what I get to do for my last three days. We are starting to think about how to get all of our stuff back to Webb...

5 hours of lamination on the mast step stringers, Andre did one, I did the other. Lunch at 3 pm. Too tired to write a full post. About to watch Star Wars 6 (the first time for me).

Happy Valentines day!

Its been quite a good weekend. Chris drove up from Philly to visit and got here Friday morning. He doesn't work Fridays, but we had to go in. To give him something to do, I met him for lunch at subway and had a delicious buffalo chicken footlong. I had to rush back to work, and finish fitting a deck longitudinal. I spent most of the week on three different operations. When I had space to work amidships, I fit the deck beam that stretches from bulkhead to to the companionway stairs, which we had tabbed in earlier in the week. Tabbing the stairs was one of the trickiest lamination I have done, but fortunately, Greg laid most of the material, I just wet out and put on the consumables. With Andre's help near the end, it took a blistering 5 hours from start to finish.

I also spent time working with Andre to make molds for the chainplate gussets, that support where the shrouds meet the deck. Andre fit the pieces, and I sanded them down to their final dimensions in the Timesaver, and giant belt sander. On Friday, I laid out the bowsprit profile on the bow of the boat. The area that the bowsprit will cover had to be removed, so that the boat is not twice as thick as it should be. To my surprise when my layout was found correct I was asked to cut it out. I proceeded to cut a giant hole in a 5 million dollar boat. Fun.

Getting back to Chris, he went with Stefan, Matt and I to the EB kids house Friday night for a wonderful dinner. We had a great pasta dinner, with meatballs and kielbasa. It was nice to get out of the house and see people for a change. After work on Saturday (I glued in that deck beam), Fanz and Matt went up to Boston,   and Chris and I went on a bit of an adventure to Fall River. We started off at Sagres, a Portuguese restaurant (http://www.yelp.com/biz/sagres-restaurant-fall-river). I had the chefs catch of the day, which turned out to be haddock, and Chris had swordfish. They were both served with brown rice, delicious boiled potatoes and a green vegetable. Overall, a good meal although the swordfish wasn't as fresh as we expected. Not disappointing, but also nothing special. We then went to see Safe House at the theater in Swansea. Really enjoyed the movie, but the theater was weird. The 7:00 pm showing on a Saturday night wasn't sold out and for an R rated movie, there were an awful lot of people under 12 and over 65.  The line for the ticket counter was out the door, but there was no one using the digital kiosk. We used it, it worked great, and we walked right in.

After the movie, we went to play Laser Tag in Fall River, at Lazer gate. I guess it is the place to be on a Saturday night, because the place was packed. We played two twenty minute games, and had a great time. Chris was ranked second overall in the last game. So all in all, it was a great weekend.

How I won 200 hundred dollars

So we had a betting pool at work. For five dollars you could buy one of the squares. The x is the predicted second digit in the Giants score, and the y axis is the second digit in the Patriots score. The squares are bought before the numbers are on the axes,  so it is a complete game of luck. I bought two squares, patriots 5, giants 9 and patriots 7 and giants 1.  Its obvious that the second square I bought was a winner. And two hundred dollars later I am buying pizza for lunch for the shop.

Last week was the hardest week I have worked in this shop. I worked with Andre the entire week. We were assigned to the lazarette. We started by fitting the three longitudinal beams, and then gluing them in. Then the beams had to be tabbed in, and because they were meeting the transom the tabbing took a lot more than usual. I took five seperate lamination get the beams in completely. All the time working in semi dark and very cramped work environment. Stretching out my legs after eight hours in a coal mine  was a wonderful feeling. On Thursday, in order to get things done in time, we started our last lamination at 4:30, and I didn't get home until after seven. It was a great week though, and I feel accomplished.

Oh and our house smells like the toaster is on fire, but we don't have a toaster. Its under control.

We are back on the productive grind at work. Lots of guys in the shop with lots to do. We got the sheer re taped on Friday, and almost all the bulkheads are taped in. I worked on the inside of  head bulkhead, with Jay and Mike S. As I think I have said before, Saturdays are the best work days. A smaller group of guys comes in, so I usually get to do more skilled jobs. With the new shears I bought from supply I cut the material for the transom tabbing. They got that all tabbed today, and Jay and Mike and I got the forward face of bulkhead D done. We had to take lunch at 1:45, but then the afternoon went by really quickly.

I have definitely gained a few of the skills of a carbon boat builder in the first month. And I am having a great time!

Today we started off a little differently. It was the composite department OSHA safety training day. This training occurs once a year. The company brings in a very nice lady who presents a powerpoint while we sit  and listen. She also asked a few questions.

Nice Lady: "You are new here, where did you come from?"
Me: "College"
Nice Lady: "Why did you leave??"
Me: "We are actually going back"

Nice Lady: "What do gloves protect you from?"
Mike: "Strippers... I mean paint stripping chemicals"

And when Adam complained to this safety woman that he was constantly cutting off his fingertips:

Joe: "Maybe they should take away your knife and give you a spoon!"
Adam: "They must have already done that to you because you are so fat."

Five minutes later the laughter died down.

It was a good start to the morning, and I learned that MSDS is being abbreviated to SDS. SDS stands for Safety Data Sheet. Oh and we tabbed the inside of the deck joint.