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"In the eye of a hurricane there is quiet..." (Hamilton, the musical)
Hurricanes come and go. Mother nature tears down and rebuilds. We all are part of that process, a tiny cog in the gears of the universe. It is hubris to pretend otherwise.
In December of 2019, a novel strain of the coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China. On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared this strain, known as Covid-19, was a global pandemic, and the United States officially declared it an emergency.
I had been considering building a T37 over the past few years. My career, however, comes with a demanding travel schedule, and what time I have at home I gladly fill with family. With the world turned upside down by Covid-19, my travels turned into web-meetings, and our children’s activities have gone on hold or turned virtual. We focus inward as time contracts and expands.
Amidst the swirling conflicts of politics and science, anecdotes and data, economics and health, I see the wind starting to bend the trees to the ground, exposing the fragility of what we've built as a society. I wrestle with decisions facing my family, preparing for and living through this storm we’re tracking. Although its nature may be much slower and wider, I know this storm, too, will pass.
Reports are now coming in that Florida is emerging as the new epicenter for the pandemic. I watch the cases rise again around me. It is now I make the time and seek the quiet in the eye of a hurricane to build my boat...
The first thing I did was lay out all the pieces. The larger wood pieces for the hull are individual and the smaller pieces come attached to the wood they were cut from. You can see the sail and mast rolled up in a plastic bag in the back, the bag of rigging and other miscellaneous pieces, on the left, and the epoxy kit on the right.
Will Lesh does a great job of being specific in the instructions down to the grit of sandpaper and the type of tape that works best. I used the 120-grit sandpaper on the edges to sand off the tabs, and followed the additional recommendations from the T37 Building Video on YouTube. You can see the pieces on the left have been sanded and the pieces on the right still have the tabs.
With the sanding done, I left the pieces for the day, and sat down to review the instructions for the next step of assembling and epoxying the hull.
This whole process really goes quite fast, and the wood doesn't need too much sanding, especially if you're planning to paint the hull.
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