Mursu is ready for work to begin!
The day MURSU came home we had 59 days until the R2AK start gun went off. We not only want to finish the boat but also have a few sea trials to work out the bugs before we headed off for Washington. We’d been thinking of this boat for a long time so you bet we were eager to finish it off and get it launched, we got to work immediately.
A special thanks to Dan Miller at Belmont Boat Works for generously providing us with shop space to work in. Without the indoor, heated space Dan provided us it’s difficult to imagine how this would have come together.
First I tackled decking the fore and aft compartments. To try and minimize adding weight we choose to use dacron. Dacron is an amazing material that is used for sails and to sheath airplane wings. When heated it stretches tight and can be waterproofed by painting it. Pretty cool stuff.
The value of these additional compartments can’t be understated. We’ve rowed a lot of miles in wet,windy conditions and bailed many buckets of water during these rows. The boat is just under 22′ long, these compartments will cover 9′ of the interior and shed rain water and allow some of the water from waves breaking over the bow to wash over instead of just filling up the boat. They are a very welcome addition!
Next post will be be about the oars I’ve built to go with MURSU….
-Dameon
Hi Dameon- decks look very good!
Thanks Walter. The dacron is great to work with, easy to install and weighs almost nothing! We’re hoping to launch MURSU the week of the 12th if all goes as planned.
Dameon