It's Here!!

My ship has come in at last!

In what has probably been the longest wait since waiting for Christmas day when I was eleven, my Pocketship came in.

Loaded Tundra had no problems.

I went down to the truck headquarters, or whatever they call the place, and had them load up my truck there.  It was the right decision instead of having them come to my house.  For one, the truck would have never gotten down the driveway and two, they had a forklift on the premises.  The Tundra squatted a bit with the 1,000 pound shipping weight of the kit but seemed to drive a bit smoother.  Smoother but slower.

I didn't have any help unloading the truck when I got home so I opened and unloaded the cargo piece by piece.  It really worked out well because I was able to inventory everything as I unloaded.

First impression of the kit was a little disappointment.  I looked at the first CNCed sheet of plywood that was on top.  The wood looked kind of cheap and was not in the best of shape.  It was thin and flimsy.  I looked closer at the sheet and noticed the shape of a tiller, I felt a great deal of relief.  This was a sheet of patterns.  When I got down to the high dollar plywood boat pieces it was obvious this was quality stuff!  The CNC cut plywood is amazing.  I think my kit is one the first cut on the new machine that CLC just bought.  This is a fascinating link to an article on their business and history of cutting out kits-  17 Years of CNC Machines-A Look Back

A little worried at first...

In my kit, I opted for milled timber.  I did this not because I don't have the know how or tools to mill my own lumber but because in my area quality lumber is hard to come by.  I got the milled stuff because sometimes rough lumber does not always yield what you need due to imperfections in the wood not visible from the unmilled stock.  If CLC mills it they will find the bad spots and discard the stuff that won't work.   My plan worked perfectly.  The milled lumber is beautiful, square and close to length and straight grain in every board.  I can't get this quality or even all these species of wood locally.  This option cost a few extra $$ but has saved me hours lumberyard scrounging and a trip or two to San Antonio or Houston.

Milled lumber!  Every timber labeled.  Smells really good too.

Time to get organized and start on the centerboard trunk.