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Finally, some progress!  After weeks of delay, I jumped back into construction by permanently installing the bronze stem casting over the breasthook, completing the punch list of items that needed to be complete before sheathing the decks.

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I continued by cutting the sections of beadboard plywood for the first (bottom) layer of the decks.  Over several hours, I cut all the pieces for the first layer of the deck, and began the painting process prior to installation.  By the end of the week, I had installed the sections around the stern.

Please click here to read more about the process.

Over the course of the week, I applied several coats of semi-gloss white paint to the beadboard for the forward sections of the boat.  After three finish coats, the plywood was ready for final installation, which I completed Sunday morning.  The end result looked terrific from inside.

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A couple days after securing the first layer of the deck sheathing, my next step was to coat the surface with unthickened epoxy in preparation for the next layer.  I hot-coated the plywood with epoxy to promote better adhesion with the epoxy putty I planned to use to laminate the upper layer of plywood.  Coating the entire surface required about 48 ounces of mixed epoxy, which I spread using the standard West System foam rollers.  I needed two to get around the whole deck, as they fell apart rather quickly.  Click here for another picture.

This week, I installed the top layer of plywood on the deck surfaces.  I installed the plywood in a troweled bed of epoxy adhesive, then screwed it in place through the bottom layer and into the deck beams beneath.  This took the better part of a day and a half to complete, but at the end the deck was smooth, solid, and rigid--and looked great!

Click here to read more about the decking.

Boo!  Happy Halloween.

There is no progress to report for this week.  Also, there will be no updates for the next three Sundays, but look for things to get on track right after Thanksgiving.  Thanks for reading!

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