These are the times that try the souls of boatbuilders in eastern PA. Allow me to demonstrate pictorally with one of my beloved helper monkeys...

Which of the following Gavinses seems happier?

A) Rower's seat-sanding Gavin in my grimy garage...

or

B) Lehigh river fishing Gavin during the Sulphur hatch

Needless to say, it's hard getting work done when the sulphurs are on and fishing is booming. It's even more difficult to find good help these days; of course, calling good (willing) sanders "helper monkeys" probably doesn't help much either. The big- boys have really been out for the bugs - a new (unofficial/pending) state record rainbow was just caught upstream form here (not by us unfortunately). . One other interesting side note: where the picture was taken is in the middle of one of the largest superfund sites in the U.S... You can think about eating the pretty fish, but dooonnn't do it.

In short, the fishing has been really good and the water levels have been incredibly low. The Lehigh, which gets pretty thin around 1000 cfs is flowing at a measly 450 cfs. Way below normal and unless you like walking your driftboat, not much fun. Furthermore, things could get pretty scary here late summer if we don't get some rain soon. In any event, with the good fishing and low water levels it's been hard to justify rushing the build. Still putting the hours in, just getting sucked into the details...

Recent progress includes installing all the sheer rails, seats and some other interior carpentry work. I hope to have the inside done by the time I go off chasing striper (next week) up on the New England coast. Here's some pics of the progress to date:

Outer Sheer rail install

Inside rails with hardware and other assorted carpentry such as the fly deck and seats. It was a bit of a bear getting the 4" bolts to alternate in a staggering pattern up and down (vertically) on the inside rail. Made a pair of jigs (hi and low) for my 1' long 1/4" drill bit. Worked out real well, and didn't miss any - well - didn't miss any real badly (had 1 or 2 that blew out a little as they were passing through the frame from rail to rail).

I also cut down the stem and the transom - I was pretty happy with the way they came out - gotta love the grain of the stem and the various laminations all coming together.

Finally, when putting the seat's in, I started experimenting with a new seat-locking/restraining mechanism as opposed to the hooks or what-not that people use traditionally. It's actually more of a braking system - using of all things, my old friend 3M 5200 as the "brake pad". As pictured, it is a piece of wood with "brake pads" at the ends placed laterally across the seat and screwed into the seat at points about 6"-1' in from where the metal sliding rail passes (my seats slide on tracks, on top of the rail). When screwed down tight, the wood with brake pad presses against the rail and stops the seat from moving (and also keeps it from flying off the rails). To move, you simply reach between your legs and pull up on the middle of the wood brake - this bends the wood and separates the brake pad from the rail allowing you to slide back and forth. Did the same for the guest seat - see what you think...

Below: seat upside down brake is being "disengaged" from rail by pressing down (when right-side-up, you would pull up to disingage)- note pivot point where screw is..

Below: The ol' 5200 brake pad having been removed from its proper place - grippier than asbestos and just as toxic!

Works great so far - we'll see how it all holds up...Part of the real fun in all of this has got to be in the creating (not just the building). Hopefully, by next blog I'll have some big striper pics in addition that that of a finished boat interior.