Here are a few more photos of Dark Secret. She is out of the loft and in the main work bay at the boat yard. Five of my co-workers helped me get her down. She just fit. What a sight she makes sitting on jack stands. She is approximately on her lines.
I left a little meat on the top edge of the sheerplank. I honored the lofted points at the stemheads and the three frames, but I wanted to be able to tweak the sheer line while she is right-side up.
I have built this boat so many times in my head since I first saw her write-up in Boat Design Quarterly #2 back in the early '90s. I had a very detailed mental picture of how she would look. On seeing her in the flesh, I am blown away. First off, she is a lot more boat than I thought she'd be. It was tough to get a realistic picture of her size in the cramped loft. Secondly, her purity of form and rightness of line is a sight to behold. Mr. Atkin truly created a piece of art when he drew her. There are some incredible design nuances that can only be appreciated by building her. I'm going to build a model of her at some point.
I am putting the lofting back down to laminate the outer stems, and I will be taking patterns for the rangs.
I am picking up a couple of small tools tomorrow. I'll go through the broken screw removal process over the weekend.
She is a lot of boat! When I turned her over it's like she grew by a third. She may look small next to those other boats, but none can match her beauty.
ReplyDelete