Carving The Seat

I probably wouldn't have made a blog entry about something as "pedestrian" as carving a seat, but I found a trick online that made it  much easier.
I basically botched the first attempt at varnishing-room to cold, uncooperative weather, re-coating too soon, etc, so I felt that I needed something that I could do in the meantime. 

I simply googled "carving a foam seat", and found a totally different way to do it. "Everybody" says to use the angle grinder, but I find the thing too damned hard to control- it has  too much power. The home made gizmo on the right is an old hacksaw blade folded in half & screwed to a board. Using it like a shave hook, it carves the foam quickly & easily. The surform rasp & sandpaper finish the job.

Side-by-side view of the Cape Ann , with (what I hope is) the final coat of varnish, and the Outer Island being re-varnished. The C.A. is of much higher volume than I imagined. I had originally planned for it to be a smaller "go-to" boat for "weekday use", but its considerably larger in volume than the O.I.