Lake Michigan in a Dugout: Building Non-stop!

These past two weeks have been almost entirely devoted to finishing this boat! A few things needed to be taken care of in a big rush. For starters, the sail we were going to use, didn't work out. The sailboard sail was 16ft tall and required some old school knot rigging to attach the boom to the mast. We couldn't even find the ancient form to which this sail demands. Luckily our friend, Geof, has lent us his old sunfish sail, complete with spare rudders... Also, something we needed to replace.

Wrong sail!

Right sail!

While we slowly figured the sail out, we spent the majority of our time finishing the Amas (the outrigger pontoons). We needed to finish glassing them, attaching the extension blocks, and finally paint them. Easy to say, a little harder to do... And time-consuming.

Glassin'

So. Much. Dust.

Ama blocks.

Let the painting begin!

But what color?

Have you guessed yet?

Chiquita banana!

Freestyle stencilin'

Look at those colors!

In order to figure placement, we needed to put Makeba back in Stone Lake, Laporte. She still floats! Not that we didn't think she would! So to get an idea of what the water line might look like, we packed up 200lbs of weights and a twin brother. Long story short, we need to pack LIGHT. REAL light. Like, wear only what the other person can wear too, kind of light. Let's just say our food will hold the greatest weight- and we're dehydrating everything.

Three's a crowd... Or a party?! Crowded party.

We also installed some leeboard pockets with wood joints. Aww Mary's first wood joint! Pretty exciting stuff.

Mary chastising Amy for sanding against the grain.

Clamp, clamp, clamp.

Let's see, what else have we been up to? Oh that's right! We've finally put everything together! So after "quickly" installing our mast step and thwart, we were ready to make this boat one piece!