So, it turns out it's been about 8 years since I built the Ruddy Duck.
It was complete, start to finish, in a few months of 2010. I took it out for the initial sea trials, and then I added the sail rig and took that out with Henry.
Once.
And since then? It's sat. Mostly outside, unprotected. It's basically trashed. I've moved it a few times, and lately have been lugging it in for the winter and out for the summer, but hasn't been near the water.
So, this summer, I decided to either fix it up or get rid of it.
I started sanding it down, and then got the idea to lop the end off add a transom, and make it a proper sailboat.
As an avid subscriber to Lou Sauzzede's
Tips From a Shipwright, I've learned a thing or two about boatbuilding, so I thought I'd give it a go.
I decided to cut it just aft of one of the ribs, so I would have something solid to screw the transom piece into.
I climbed underneath and used a drill to punch holes along the intended cut line (a trick I learned from Lou):
And then I cut along that line:
And then I had TWO boats.
This was a little strange, and sudden, because I have had that boat for the better part of a decade, and in the span of about 30 minutes, I decided to cut it in half, and then cut it. The boat, as I knew it, had ceased to be.
It was a pretty rough saw cut so, again taking some Tips from Lou, I sanded it down so I had a nice, clean, flush surface to work with.
At that point it, was really just slapping a piece of quarter-inch plywood across the transom and screwing it in, and boom. I had a (new) boat.
