Building and Sailing Thlaloca Dos

For appearance sake, teak is for boats the king of woods. Today, 26 years later, the price of this precious fiber is out of sight. In 1973 we paid $1.63 a b.ft., so we didn't hesitate using it throughout, inside and on deck. The result is a warm and attractive interior. As of cabin sole, we became friends with a chemist, Walter Clark, who also was a wood enthusiast, collecting wood from every place he was stationed. When another job transfer was in the offing, his wife, Kitty, red him the riot act--the wood or me! Under pressure of this ultimatum he tearfully parted with some of his treasure, very much to our benefit. While stationed in New England, a horse stable, used during the Civil War, had to be torn down. Walter bid on it and so became owner of a huge pile of chestnut timber. Well saturated with "horse de manure" (which in time has lost its not entirely unpleasant odor)  made our cabin sole.  

The boat has a center cockpit, which divides the main cabin from the one aft. The design was changed to have bridge decks fore and aft of the cockpit for safety reasons. (In an ocean-going vessel I see little sense having a large cockpit with open ends, where a flooded cockpit has free access into the cabins.) Not only that, the mid-part of a vessel should be the strongest, therefore we couldn't swallow sacrificing such important structural integrity. Later, when we have to admit being too frail  lifting our legs that will be the time to quit sailing.