in with the seats

i added seats today

had to start by cutting a daggerboard slot in the middle seat

i (with O's help) clamped it down so i could rout the slot. 

you can see my router guide marks here

clamping the yardstick down really helped to guide the router this time (as you can see on the left) 

the slot was much straighter than the bottom. it fit pretty nicely. we'll see when i get the daggerboard together. 

next i trimmed up the seats and glued em in!

used all the heavy stuff in my garage to hold them down until epoxy cures.

28 degrees outside tonight so ill give it at least 24-36 hours

fillets (pronounced fill-its)

well

i used my wife's cake icing bag to place fillets along the interior today. 

they came out fine, ill post pics of the final product later

next....seats

daggerboard trunk

well ive been busy with meetings and call all week so i just got back to the boat. 

time for the daggerboard trunk. 

i started by being sure i was centered. this wasnt as easy as it sounds, but after a lot of measuring i was pretty close. 

i had already assembled the trunk. 

i trimmed up the edges and coated with resin. 

next came the first of many uncomfortable steps..... drilling holes in the bottom of my boat. 

 i centered them up and started at the ends of the slot. 

owen helped!

'cheese'

next jennifer came and helped me flip it so i could cut the slot with my router

the router was hard to keep straight but does pretty work. i used a 3/4 inch bit. 

i sanded the interior edge by hand and used a rounding bit to round off the bottom edges. 

you can see here the slot is not perfect but close. 

after some hand sanding she cleaned up nicely

next i flipped her back over and wet the trunk with resin, then screwed her in and put down some fillets

i was pretty happy with the result 

jan 16: interior glass

glassed the inside today. not nearly as easy as the outside was. 

i fashioned this stand to hold the stern end of the boat off of the floor and keep the skeg from breaking 

you can see it in action here. not much to it but very functional. 

then, it was all about measuring the cloth, and mixing up 16+ounces of resin. 

the cloth is so porous that its easier to shape than you might think. it was very messy though when wet. 

heres the bow. you can see the excess cloth above the garboard seam. 

i trimmed it with a straight razor but it still isnt perfect and is gonna need some sandpaper magic. 

here she is with freshly wet cloth and 

theres the final product

needs sandpaper next. 

shaping the skeg

quick post:  rasped. planed, and sanded the skeg today 

will coat w epoxy then move to the interior of the boat tomorrow

skeggerator

well, the two halves of the skeg came together quite well but when the epoxy dried I noticed that there was a slight bow in the skeg moving from aft to forward.  this would require some ingenuity... 

once i got her upside down i measured the center line. finding the center of a round bottom was also not easy, so fatboy and myself popped a chalk line to guide us.

i glued the skeg and drilled in two screws....into the back half of the skeg, keeping the back half (alone) center. the front half remained bowed towards the port side of the boat. 

then i used masking tape to 'pull' the front half of the skeg back to center and drilled away. 

you can see the two sister tapes on the right here pulling the anterior skeg back to midline. 

then....

epoxy fillets on both sides. they require patience, but im starting to feel like an expert

ill add a 'sacrificial' wood strip to the bottom of this skeg tomorrow for hard landings. 

mom, dad, and meme came down for supper tonight so the family and i went to the grocery store today. as you can see the boys were having fun in the cart!

rails part 2....first router experience

shaping up the rails today. borrowed a router from wills golf cars and used a 1/4 inch round over bit. 

had to practice on some old 2x4s....it didnt go well at first but once i got the depth set up correctly, it went beautifully. 

i still sanded over top with 220 grit. 

the stems came out ok too. 

then i covered her with the first coat of epoxy and will let it cure overnight. 

also went ahead and filled some gaps on the interior

to get an early start on the daggerboard trunk, i coated the skeg and the trunk as well. 

now i just need to get my garage warm enough for this stuff to cure!