I got a little over excited about getting the boat done and started weaving the nylon rope before I had varnished the inside of the boat. It all has two coats of plastic but it still needs a coat of spar varnish for UV protection.
Here is the start of the woven front seat, all of which I would have to take out to apply a coat of varnish, then put it all back in later.
That's a 1 1/2" thick piece of oak with lots of buts in all the holes. I brings home the phrase "pushing a rope", because you can't push the flimsy role into the hole. To make it work, you have to tape this 1/8" dowel (stiffy) to the front of the rope.
I mixed a fistful of sand into a pint of spar varnish and coated the floor and rear seat for UV protection and gription. Then I coated every other unpainted piece of wood on the top of the boat. Lotsa work.
The rear seat carries a lot of tension on the unsupported underside of the frame, so it needs two 1/4" bolts of 10" lengths. You can't buy bolts in those lengths, so I had to use a die to thread both ends of a 1/4" steel rod.
Here they are both installed, and varnished. Hey, they need protection too.
The oarlocks arrived today. The best I could find. $50 each for cast bronze Cobras from Sawyer Oars. Nice.
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