March 27, 2020

Scupper 261

Final Days

After many coats of varnish, the tiller was complete and ready for final installation, which I began by installing the bracket for the tillerpilot; I’d marked and drilled pilot holes earlier, so now I could just screw in the bracket.  Afterwards, I secured the bronze tiller strap, and installed the tiller in the cockpit.

Next, I installed and hooked up the tiller pilot, and gave it a quick test run from side to side to confirm operation.  With the tiller bracket now permanently in place, I checked the fit of the canvas tiller cover, which fit well around the bracket as intended.

I spent a little time loading on some of the gear that went with the boat, including new running rigging (sheets etc.), some of the mast hardware (wind transducer, Windex, VHF antenna), boom vang, and other sundries, storing them carefully in various lockers in the boat.

After multiple coats of varnish on all sides of the two new companionway swashboards, I finished up the screen unit by stapling screening to the back side of the assembly, then installing some varnished trim pieces around the perimeter.  This represented the last new work on the boat, and on the project.

Total time billed on this job over the final days:  5.75 hours