Utility christened.

I had been debating on how many coats of varnish to put on the boat. When I finally ran out of varnish completely, I decided that would be a good stopping point.

So, after I let the last coat of varnish sit for a couple of days, it was time to put the name decal on the transom.

Taping the decal into position

Backing removed; decal and premask pressed down meticulously with a plastic keycard

Premask removed

The decal came all the way from Saskatchewan.  I had ordered a material that I felt most resembled actual gold-leaf paint — "22K Florentine Gold." Yes, it was a little expensive. But, the folks at Boat-Lettering.com were easy to work with, and they produced what seems to me a high-quality decal. The font preview / design interface on their website was a fun and convenient tool to use, not to mention a great selling point for their services. 

So, how many coats of varnish are there on the boat? Six coats on the deck, seats, and quarter knees. Five coats on the transom, and three coats on the battery mount and switch panel. In all, one entire quart of Pettit Z-Spar Captain's Varnish 1015 from Boaters Plus. (That includes a fairly high percentage of waste, due to my inexperience using the stuff).

What remains to be done? Well, I'm slowly learning that you're never really "finished" working on a boat. However, the last major remaining task is to finish wiring the bilge pump. This will also involve drilling and water-sealing a couple of holes to run the wire through.

Lastly, I may go ahead and bolt the Nissan outboard to the transom. The last couple of times I went to the lake were pretty rough on my back... taking the motor off of its stand, putting it in the back of the SUV, taking it out again, putting it on the boat, taking it off the boat, putting in back in the SUV, taking it out again at home, and putting it back on its stand....

Sure, it's not real heavy as far as outboard motors go, but all that strain on my back is a bit much.

Maybe I'm getting too old for this ship.