A Declaration

After yesterday's deck and spar work, I was pretty motivated today.  For starters, I trimmed the decks to fit the hull, and sanded them smooth.  Then we set sawhorses under the hull and flipped it over, to begin work on the exterior. The goal is to "radius" the seams - that is, to turn them from angular meetings of two sheets of plywood, to gently curved transitions that can be smoothly covered with glass tape.

Using my trusty 4-in-hand file, some 60-grit sandpaper, and the block plane, I proceeded to radius the entire length of all three seams in about an hour and a half.  It went much faster than anticipated, but I suspect I'm going to be really, really sore tomorrow.

Soon - maybe even later today - I'll make a small batch of filleting epoxy and touch up the gaps in the seams.  Then it will be time to glass 'em, and do the final epoxy-coating of the exterior.

Translation:  I'm within sight of completing the hull.  Emboldened by this realization, I've decided to state publicly that I will launch this boat in June. 

There, I said it.  And now it remains to be seen whether I can put my money where my mouth is.  Stay tuned....

It's a Boat! (Sort of....)

I stitched the sides panels on today.  The first was done before I left for work, and I added the second one after I got home.  There was a little trouble getting things to line up right - the sides want to ride up on the ends, leaving gaps at the chine and covering the handles.  But I was able to fix that by using a clamp between the gunwales and the keel, then tightening the wire stitches.

The hull takes a very slim shape until you force the seats into place.  This encourages the sides to curve properly, which helps the ends of the gunwales fit properly at stem & stern.  The seat shown is in only temporarily here -  I need to trim the aft seat to fit the taper of the hull before it will fit at all, and the forward seat needs to be notched to fit around the butt joints, too.  So the hull shape will change a bit yet, but it's not far off now.

With the seats in place, the hull has a beam of about 22" at the widest -- narrow! And it's long!  Assembled, it's not heavy, but it is awkward to move around.


There's still some stitching left to do.  After I get the last stitches in, tighten everything up and double-check the lines, it will be time to start packing the seams with epoxy fillets.