Sanding, sanding, sanding....

It's been a busy Summer so far. Somewhere along the way recently, I reached a milestone on the project...the woodworking part is done, and the "only" thing left is to sand, varnish, paint, and set up the rigging! Oh, and put the trailer together, and get the truck fixed, and attach the trailer hitch...
For the mast, I decided to custom build a mast-head sheave, using some parts from duckworks. The block was carved out from a solid piece of ash, leftover from the tiller--I left a 4 or 5 inch round dowel on the bottom of the block, which was fitted into the hole in the top of the mast...I had to drill it out slightly. The mast itself came out ok...but if I could do it again, I would have tapered it non-linearly...as it is, the diameter seems a bit too thin near the top, and I'm a little concerned that it may flex too much (or even break off above the point where the shrouds attach. Well, if it happens, it happens...at least now I know I can make another one!
I also got a really lovely set of 8 1/2 ft oars from Barkley Sound, shipped from Canada.
The only other part that had to be build was the mast tabernacle, and that went together pretty smoothly. I used a couple of wood screws and 4 stainless steel bolts to hold it onto the deck...under the deck, I had to epoxy in a couple of blocks of wood on either side of the king plank so the bolts would have more to hold on to.
I spent a long time sanding every square centimeter of the inside of the boat and the deck and side decks...then started varnishing. It took about 5 hrs to varnish the entire inside (including the storage area under the deck), and I put on 3 coats, sanding in-between coats. It turned out fine, except for one major screw-up...I should have put another coat of unthickened epoxy on the deck before starting with the varnish...I tried to mitigate the mistake by adding a couple extra coats of varnish to the deck, but as it is, the finish looks pretty amateurish when the light reflects off of it...maybe someday I'll sand the whole thing off and start over, but somehow I doubt it...
She's over on her side again now, and I'm sanding the edges of the fiberglass tape. I'm also contemplating whether to attempt to encase the runners and skeg in fiberglass cloth--at least the bottoms of them...they look pretty vulnerable down there where they will bear most of the brunt of beaching. I think I've just convinced myself to try.
As far as a launch date, friends and family keep asking, and I've been wrong time and time again...one thing I've learned--I'm lousy at predicting how long things take...but I'm confident it will be in the water this season!