Headed to the Wharram Rendezvous This Weekend

I'm leaving Thursday to drive down to Islamorada, Florida for the Spring Wharram Rendezvous.  I've missed all these events since I started building Element II, but this time I'll be in attendance, although without a Wharram cat.  I'm planning on staying aboard Abaco, David Halladay's Tiki 30, which will be there along with several other Florida Wharram cats.  I will be taking my 17-foot Arctic Tern sea kayak, so I can get around the area and to use it as a platform for photography.  I have at least three and possibly four magazine articles lined up that I will get material for on this trip. 

Hopefully, hanging around all those finished boats and committed Wharram sailors will give me some inspiration to get back in gear on my own build.  I've been at it very sporadically.  I just signed another book contract with my publisher and have to complete an entire manuscript by September 1.  With other work to do as well, this doesn't leave much time for the boat. 

Since my last post, I've assembled the companionway hatches.  Here they are sanded and shaped, then coated with epoxy.  They will also be sheathed with fiberglass cloth.  The plywood is 9mm okoume, and the solid wood trim is all teak.  You'll notice the 1-inch diameter holes in the extended sections on the outboard ends.  This is for a one-inch stainless steel tube, upon which the hatches will hinge and slide - Tiki 30 and Tiki 8-Meter style.  I decided to go back to this method of securing the hatches after much internal debate over the pros and cons.  In the end, the convenience and elegant simplicity of this method won out over any advantage a forward-sliding hatch would offer.