Earlier, thinking I was done with assembling the boat halves for a while, I’d removed the knobs and pins from the connecting hardware, anticipating interior finish work and masking.  But I realized while glancing ahead in the book that I’d have to assemble the hull to do the initial layout for the alignment clips.  So, over the holiday break and taking advantage of the fact that the knobs were already off, I went ahead and applied finish to the knobs, which would save having to do it later.  I thought the knobs as machined looked pretty cool, so I chose to finish them with spar varnish, which I happened to have in a handy spray can.  I masked off the pins and held the knobs in a vise so I could apply several coats of varnish over a day or two.

Moving on with real work, I started out by sanding all the filled screw holes and other areas from last time, working only by hand and with a small sanding block with 12o grit.  This included the fairing on the inwale, and the filled screw hole on the forward bottom edge of the skeg, along with the small fillet surrounding the mast tube.  A few areas still had some low spots that would require some spot filling later.

I block-sanded flush the edges of the small fiberglass shims I’d epoxied at the aft bulkhead corners for the alignment clips, then reassembled the connecting pin hardware so I could conjoin the boat halves again to continue the initial layout of the alignment clips.   The shims were intended to bring the aft bulkhead up to or just higher than the level of the foredeck, so I was unprepared to find that in fact the shims were still below foredeck level once the boat was assembled, as determined by holding a straightedge tight to the foredeck and observing how it passed over the shims on both sides.  This was mildly frustrating and wholly unexpected.

I cut some additional shims from prefab fiberglass stock on hand, and ensured that they’d be thick enough to stand proud of the foredeck once installed.

I disassembled the boat once more and, after final preparations, glued in the extra shims with thickened epoxy.

Without any additional work required for now on the hulls, I applied some fairing epoxy over some of the screw holes, the inwale, and previously-filled nail holes in the foredeck to bring everything up flush as needed.

A few days earlier, while pulling out various small parts left in the inventory and which would require some epoxy steps before final installation, I discovered that there were no rowing foot support cleats amongst them.  I found this odd since an installation template was included, and the book covered in some detail their installation, but it turned out that for reasons beyond comprehension these cleats were an optional add-on and not part of the stock kit.  Given the otherwise completeness of the kit, and the necessity of these foot supports for efficient rowing, this was surprising.   Fortunately, I had teak stock on hand from which I could easily (if unnecessarily) make up the cleats in the shop.  From a teak leftover, I milled a 3/4″ square piece that was long enough to build the eight 5-1/2″ long cleats the manual suggested were necessary, and I shaped them according to photos in the book, with angled ends and rounded corners.

(Note:  It took 30 minutes to mill and sand the cleats, and $8.37 worth of teak, so the total cost of the shop made cleats was about $45, versus $55 for the add-on kit.)

Now with all the required small parts at hand, I turned to some epoxy pre-finishing as detailed in the book.  Along with the foot cleats, I had to address four rowlock risers, two aft seat support cleats, a daggerboard filler piece cleat, and the two carbon fiber alignment clips, plus the aft seat itself.

To thoroughly epoxy-coat all these tiny parts, I followed the teachings of the manual, and attached all the parts to small plywood bits with nails and hot glue.  The oversized plywood strips–quickly milled from scraps–provided a way to easily secure the parts with standoffs, in this case either nails or screws glued to the plywood, and this arrangement allowed for easy coating and handling of the 18 parts, including–at the book’s suggestion–clamping the parts upside down off the bench while the epoxy cured.  I coated all sides of the aft seat by holding it off the table with nails driven into the table surface, and their heads cut off (as I’d done throughout the project for various parts).  These parts would receive two more coats in the coming days.

These small parts were the last components of the boat itself requiring work for now, so I turned to the sailing foils kit–rudder and daggerboard–that this owner also chose to purchase, and which came with its own separate manual and collection of parts.  The foils as delivered were pre-milled to shape from 3/4″ plywood.

The first task required with the foils was to build up trailing edges of solid epoxy, much as I’d done with the skeg a few days earlier.  The milled parts included a built-in space for this extension on their trailing edges and tips.

To form these new trailing edges, I proceeded in accordance with the manual, and applied three layers of masking tape (pre-laminated on a long metal ruler) to the trailing edges on both sides of each part, pressing the tape tightly against the plywood edges and leaving a small gap, or quasi-mold, formed by the tape.

I propped the parts up so the trailing edges faced upwards, and filled the “molds” with a thickened epoxy mixture, piped in by syringe.

Then, I laid the parts on their sides and applied more thickened epoxy to the tips, which were only masked on one side, meaning the epoxy had to be abundant so I could shape it down to the required profile later.  I also filled the holes at the top of each part with the thickened epoxy; I’d masked over these from the underside previously.

Finally,  the owner requested that I make provisions for the possible (and hopefully minimal) use of a small electric outboard on the dinghy.  The manual didn’t hold back much on the designers’ opinions vis a vis the use of an outboard, but nonetheless did offer some basic guidance.  I started by locating a measured drawing of the owner’s outboard online, so I could determine whether or what modifications I might need to do at the transom.  The second two photos here are pirated from the manual to show what they suggest to accommodate various small outboards:  A small relief cut to narrow the inwale in the center of the boat, reinforced with an additional plywood block beneath the inwale.

I measured the inwale width, which at between 2-1/4″ and 2-3/8″ was almost or exactly at the maximum opening of the outboard mounting clamps, so it looked like it’d be a good idea to make the relief cut and install the extra thickness beneath the inwale.  This would be a project for another day.

 

The various newly-epoxied areas, including the skeg fillets and several miscellaneous patches on both hulls, required a light sanding to finish off.

This pretty much brought the exteriors of the hulls up to the point required before primer and paint, other than a need to fill the screw hole at the forward end of the skeg.

Next, I turned the hulls over so I could finish off several interior details, starting with hole-filling:  the slots where the skeg attached, and the screw holes from installing the foredeck.  Respectively, I masked off the slots, and used a countersink to make small divots at all the screw locations before also masking around them.  On the bulkheads, I chamfered the edges of the alignment pin holes, which would require epoxy coating within, and also sanded around the holes located at each corner of the inwale and in the breasthook, also to prepare for coating.

I sanded the protruding mast tube down so roughly 1/16″ remained above the deck, using a sanding block with a couple tongue depressors glued to the surface as guides.

I filled all the screw holes and skeg slots with a thickened epoxy mixture, and used more of the same to fillet around the mast tube.  I applied some of the fairing filler to the inwale to ease the transition where the transom fiberglass wrapped over the edge.  Then, with some unthickened epoxy, I coated the various holes I’d prepared earlier, and also coated the inside of the bulkhead gasket slot one more time.

Finally, I prepared two slim fiberglass shims that I had to install on the aft hull bulkhead for the eventual alignment clips.  I shaped the shims to fit into the corners of the bulkhead, and installed them with epoxy adhesive and tape to clamp.

These small details were some of the few remaining before the interior of the hull was also brought up to readiness for primer and paint.  A few other small tasks lay ahead, but those would be for after the holiday break.

 

The fill coats on the hull had had a couple days’ cure time, and now I sanded the hull as needed to smooth and flatten the epoxy surface.  I used a vibrating palm sander for the flats–most of the boat was comprised of flats–with 80 grit to break the surface, followed by 120 grit.  I finished up with hand sanding on the corners and more contoured areas, with and without a sanding block.  This process worked well to remove any roller texture and flaws from the fill coats, leaving a smooth surface without compromising the fiberglass cloth beneath.

At the gunwales, I block sanded the small lip of fiberglass along the bottom (facing up for now) edges so they were flush with the faces, and block sanded the faces smooth as needed.  I left the upper (downward-facing for now) edges to be cleaned up once I turned the hulls back over soon.  I did use a block sander to clean up the fiberglass where it slightly overhung the bulkhead faces, carefully making these flush and square once more.

I didn’t sand much at the bulkhead ends of the hulls–just a light sanding in those areas for now–so that I could finish those areas off once I rejoined the hull halves, but once I turned both halves upright again, I finished off sanding along the upper edges of the gunwales, the breasthook and inwale as needed to bring the new fiberglass flush and otherwise smooth these surfaces.  Because of the way the transom fiberglass overlapped onto the inwale, I’d have to add some fairing compound later to finish smoothing the transition.

Next, I reconnected the hull halves, then turned the boat over again and sanded across the conjoined seam with a sanding block to finish things off.  I knifed open the towing hole at the stem and cleaned that up too.

The daggerboard trunk openings on both sides–hull and foredeck–required a bit of work to clean up the edges and the filleted corners I’d installed before fiberglassing, but hadn’t otherwise addressed.

Once I was satisfied with the hull fairness across the seam, I disconnected the hull halves once more and got the stern section set up for installing the skeg; this required propping one end on a sawhorse since I required access from beneath to secure the skeg during installation.  I’d previously prepared the skeg through several steps, including installing a fiberglass base shoe and solid epoxy trailing edge, plus sheathing in 6 oz. cloth and fill-coating as usual before sanding it smooth while working on the hull earlier in the day.

Now, I fully opened the three alignment holes in the bottom of the boat, and, after some minor modification to the tongues on the skeg, achieved a workable dry fit, ensuring the skeg was straight and true.

I marked the hull around the skeg, then removed the skeg and installed it permanently in the usual way, with epoxy priming of the skeg top and hull surface, then thickened epoxy adhesive with high-density filler and cabosil.  I secured the skeg for gluing with two screws driven from inside the boat, through the slots and into the tongues with little plywood washers, and a third screw driven from outside the boat near the thin forward end of the skeg.  This arrangement left the skeg firm and sturdy in place, so I could continue immediately and install 3/4″ radius epoxy fillets along both sides where the skeg joined the hull, and extending just past the trailing edge so I could finish off the fillet as desired later with sandpaper.

Finally, I went around the two parts of the boat with some fairing compound and applied it to a few areas requiring a bit of extra attention, especially at the upper transom corners to better blend where the gunwale fabric had wrapped around, and both sides of the stem to clean up some tool marks left when I’d faired that area between fiberglassing sessions, but also a few random low spots here and there on the hulls.

 

After first trimming the excess fiberglass from the gunwale edges and mating bulkheads on the two sections of the hull, I lightly sanded the mild fiberglass edge where the bottom fabric overlapped that on the sides of the hull, and also lightly sanded the entire hull all over to remove gloss and begin to smooth the epoxy fill coat.  The initial fill coat on all areas still left some indications of the texture of the cloth beneath, and for the best finish I wanted to apply a second fill coat over the entire boat.  I used a palm sander with 80 grit for much of the work, and finished off by hand at the corners and edges where needed.  Then, I went over the entire hull once more with a Scotchbrite pad to help remove any remaining gloss without compromising the surface.

Before continuing with the fill coat, I had to add some fairing compound to ease the transitions where the bottom cloth, and the cloth at the stem and parts of the transom, overlapped, leaving a small ridge.  Using a fairing mixture made from 410 fairing filler and cabosil, I troweled these areas smooth, and left the material to cure for a couple hours, awaiting it to gel firmly enough to coat over.

Meanwhile, I trimmed the excess glass from the edges of the skeg, and lightly sanded the first fill coat on both sides.  The side that had faced down on the plastic sheeting initially was mostly smooth, but had a few voids, so I filled those with a skim coat of the leftover fairing compound from the hull, and left it to semi-cure for the moment.

Later in the day, the fairing compound had set up enough to continue, so I prepared more of the fill coat mixture and applied it over both hulls and gunwales, spreading the material with a 1/4″ nap roller and then finishing it off with a foam roller.  I was pleased with the results of this second coat, and felt it was completely worthwhile even though I’d hoped one coat would be enough.

I flipped the skeg over and fill-coated the second side before departing the shop for the weekend.

I began by trimming the excess fiberglass from the gunwales and other areas, using a sharp knife to cut the fabric right at the edges of the boat.  Then, I did some light sanding prep work at the to edge of the boat and at the transom, where the topsides fabric ended, to ease that transition a bit for the new fiberglass on the bottom and transom.  I sanded down onto the hull a couple inches as well, to smooth and remove the gloss from the first fill coat.  I also block-sanded the gunwales to bring the overlapping fiberglass back flush with their faces.

For now, my focus was on completing the sheathing and fill coat on the remaining areas, so further work on the first fill coat would wait till another day.  The fill coat looked pretty good overall, but there was still some cloth texture visible through the coating, and I figured I’d do a full second fill coat on the entire hull once the bottom work was done.

To continue, I made a few reference marks and masked off the bottom of the hull about 1-1/4″ down from the chine on both sides of both hulls.  This mark would ultimately be where the bottom cloth would end.

I laid out the pre-cut pieces of 6 oz. cloth across the bottom, letting it run wild over the tape.  In the bow section, I skewed the cloth a bit to one side at the stem, leaving me a large enough scrap piece to cut and fill in the pointy end of the stem; at the stern, I cut one more piece of cloth from the roll to cover the last 18″ or so of the hull.

I wet out the first layers in place, then carefully rolled out the second layer (4 oz. cloth this time) from the bulkheads towards each end, and wet that out too.

Next, I used a sharp knife to trim the material at the top edge of the tape lines, and removed the masking tape.  This left a good double-overlap of cloth at the lower chines:  the topsides’ cloth extended 1″ or so onto the bottom panel, and the bottom cloth extended 1-1/4″ onto the topsides, providing more than 2″ of overlap when all was said and done.

I glassed the transom next, wetting out the transom surface and then unrolling the cloth, which I’d prepared by rolling both ends in towards the center to make it easier to align the cloth properly.  I trimmed the edges roughly 1/2″ wide all around, and rolled the material over the rounded edges of the transom and onto the hull and inwale respectively.

Next, I turned to the gunwales, which required two layers of fiberglass on each half of the boat:  two layers of 6 oz. cloth on the bow section, and a layer of heavy unidirectional fabric plus a 6 oz. layer on the aft section.  I started by rolling on a coat of slightly-thickened resin (with cabosil) to the gunwale faces, which would help the material stick to the narrow, vertical plywood edge grain.  Then I installed the two layers in turn, starting with the bow section.  As usual, the work with the fraying edges of the cut cloth looked terrible at first glance, but the ragged edges, despite their awful appearance, were ultimately unimportant since what mattered was that the cloth was well-adhered to the flat faces of the gunwales.

Next, I installed the material on the stern half, starting with the unidirectional fabric, then the 6 oz. cloth over the top.  I let these strips run out an inch or two onto the transom.

Later in the day, I returned to apply the fill coat to the bottom and transom, again using the mixture of epoxy thickened with 410 filler.

I used some leftover fill coat to fill both sides of the skeg, which I’d previously trimmed of excess glass. I laid the first side down flat on fresh plastic while I did the second side.

Everything was ready, so I got right to work wetting out the hull sheathing fabric.  The process was unremarkable and posed no issues.  At the stem, I wrapped the cloth around and over so that it overlapped roughly an inch on the opposite side; the second side did the same, doubling the amount of material on the stem and the first foot or so of the bottom panel.  Then, to top things off, I installed two tapered layers of 4 oz. cloth that I’d previously cut; these extended from the knuckle to the top of the stem and overlapped one another, as well as the seams of the overlapping main layers beneath.  I left excess cloth to overhang the gunwales and at the amidships bulkheads.

At the transom, once I’d wet out the cloth I trimmed the excess length to leave about 1/2″ of cloth, which I then wet out and wrapped over the rounded transom corners.  On both hull halves, the cloth wrapped over and onto the bottom panel by an inch or so (more at the forward end of the bow); I’d install the sheathing on the bottom in another round of work next time.

While waiting for the fiberglass to cure enough for the fill coat later in the day, I prepared the fiberglass for the outboard edges of the gunwales, and fiberglassed both sides of the skeg after sanding the glue-up remnants from installing the fiberglass base cap.

In the afternoon, the resin had gelled enough that I could install the fill coat on the hull. For this fill coat, on advice of the book I added 50% by volume of 410 microlight filler to the resin (I started with an 8 oz. batch of resin, and added 4 oz. of the filler, firmly packed).  I used a 1/4″ mohair roller to apply the epoxy to the hull, spreading it as evenly as possible, then finished off the work by rolling again with a foam roller, which helped smooth out the texture.  As the material leveled, it achieved a glossy texture.  I hoped that this application would be heavy enough to completely fill the weave of the cloth, but only time would tell.  Other than adding thickness to the coat, the filler had the main advantage of helping the epoxy cling to the hull with far less inclination to run or sag, as it might tend to do in an unthickened state, and I was impressed with how well this seemed to work.  Another advantage was that the filler would make the coating much easier to sand flat and smooth.

I got a late start on the day after an offsite appointment, but my first task was to lightly sand the interior of the stern half to finish off the minor fairing work.

Next, I reinstalled the mating hardware and connected the two boat halves together again for the first time since cutting the boat.  I did this on the benchtop, supporting the ends with some blocking as needed to bring the bulkheads flat together so I could start to engage the threads of the four connecting bolts.  It took a little doing to get things aligned, but before long the boat was reconnected.  Sometime later in the build, I’d install some alignment hardware that would make this process foolproof on the water.

I turned the boat upside down on the table–not the easiest thing to do now that I’d gotten used to the easy-to-maneuver boat halves–and prepared to do some minor fairing work at the hull seam.

The seam was tight and mostly flush, and required only the lightest of touch-ups with a sanding block to ensure it was straight and fair across.  I finished off the hull prep by dressing up the remains of the hull by hand and as needed; because I’d done all the hull fairing and filling work much earlier, and incrementally as needed, this step didn’t require a lot of time or effort now.  I vacuumed and cleaned the hull, and separated the halves once more so I could set them up on the bench for fiberglassing.

I did a little more work on the daggerboard trunk next.  With the fiberglass strips now cured, I added some small epoxy fillets in the four corners on each side of the boat (foredeck and bottom). Those fillets could cure and be ready when I was ready to sand these slots flush with the foredeck and hull in another day or so.  For now, this wouldn’t affect what I wanted to do next.

Because the hull sheathing required epoxy fill-coating on the same day, to ensure the best of bonds between the fiberglass and the second coating, I planned to start the actual fiberglass process in the morning, so that gave me the rest of the afternoon to cut all the fiberglass required and get things set up.  The manual called for cutting four pieces of 6 oz. cloth 25-1/2″ wide and six feet long by cutting the full cloth width in half, but I found that the roll of cloth was only 50″ wide, making this a mathematical impossibility.  There certainly wasn’t enough cloth to cut the required widths and discarding the not-quite half left over, but fortunately I found that 24″ width was just enough to cover the boat as required; these sections of cloth extended from about an inch over the bottom hull panel to the edges of the gunwales.  I did some rough measurements on the boat first before committing to cutting the four pieces of cloth, just to be sure.

I started by laying the panels out on the forward half of the boat, which was a bit more involved because of the narrow stem.  I laid the cloth dry as directed, and used several push pins to help hold it temporarily.  At the stem itself, the cloth would wrap around slightly to the other side, and I trimmed it as needed before folding the cloth back on itself and with additional push pins to hold it.  Then, I repeated the layout on the opposite side.

The stern half was more straightforward, but given the minimal width of cloth available, I found that it was only just barely wide enough at the widest part of the boat to extend both 1″ on to the bottom panel, and over the entire bottom side of the gunwales as required.  But it was enough.  Just.  Again, I used temporary push pins as needed to secure the cloth for now.  I left the ends to run wild over the center and transom.

The fiberglassing would take place over two days, and two separate operations, to allow the bottom panels to be installed as intended, so the four sections needed for the first day were all set to go.  To prepare ahead, I cut the fiberglass required for the bottom panel on each half of the boat:  a piece of 6 oz, plus a second layer of 4 oz. to give extra impact and wear protection to the bottom of the boat where it would be needed most in practice.  Cutting the two pieces of 4 oz. used up the rest of the roll provided, and this didn’t leave me enough 4 oz. cloth for the required transom piece, so I cut that out of 6 oz. instead.   This shortage probably happened because earlier for some small part or another I’d had to cut fresh 4 oz. cloth to fit when the instructions called for using scrap–but I’d no scrap that fit at that time.  And I didn’t even use the 4 oz. cloth for the interior chine tabbing, as the directions had called for; that would have left things even more short.

My only real complaint with the contents of this otherwise excellent boat kit is that the amounts of material are a bit sparse or otherwise insufficient, and allow no room for error, variations in how one cuts or uses things, or anything else at all.  I ran out of copper wire when I wired the hull and had to buy more, and now I was out of one of the weights of fiberglass, which would probably domino into eventually running short on the 6 oz. cloth somewhere later in the process because I had to steal some now for the transom.

But that was a problem for Future Me.  For now, I was ready to get the hull glassed starting in the morning.

Over the weekend, I applied a second fill coat of epoxy to the fiberglass on the gunwales, bulkhead edges, stem, and transom areas.  I decided on this second fill coat because the heavier cloth used on many of these parts didn’t fill as completely with the first coat, and to help ease the various transitions between layers of fiberglass and adjacent areas.  The book suggested this might be the case, and recommended the second coat as well.  Before applying the second build coat, I trimmed the fiberglass close to the various edges with a knife.

Now, with the build coats cured, I set to work sanding all the new fiberglass to smooth the surfaces and bring the edges flush all around as needed. This was all hand work with small foam sanding block that I like and 120 grit paper.

It was time to open up and finish off the two ends of the daggerboard trunk.  I started by drilling a 1/2″ hole through the foredeck over where I knew the trunk to be, which allowed me to use a router and a straight pattern bit to cut out the opening.  I used a small square-edged sanding block to square the corners afterwards, since the next step required it.

On the bottom, I’d drilled a 1/2″ hole through the boat just before installing the daggerboard trunk a while back, and used this to open the bottom slot as well, squaring its corners the same way.

To finish off these openings and provide a wear surface for the daggerboard to slide and rest against, the book called for slim strips of G10 fiberglass, which I had to cut to fit all four sides of the openings top and bottom:  long edges first, then the short ends to fit tightly between.  I dry fit all the pieces and labeled as shown.

To install the strips and before departing for lunch break, I started with a coat of unthickened epoxy on all the plywood edges within the slots, using a fast hardener mix so the epoxy would have a moment to partially set up before continuing.    Then, in the afternoon, I installed the fiberglass strips with a thickened epoxy mixture, which was enough to hold things in place:  first the foredeck side, then the bottom side with the boat flipped over.  I kept the fiberglass just barely above the finished foredeck and hull surfaces so I might bring the edges perfectly flush with light sanding later.

Meanwhile, I continued some of the early prep work on the skeg.  I sanded the new epoxy trailing edge I’d formed last time, bringing it smooth at the tapered plywood ends and leaving about a 3/16″ flat on the trailing edge.  Then, I supported the skeg upside down with three screws driven through the benchtop and slightly into the skeg, and installed a long fiberglass wear strip on the bottom edge, first wetting out the surfaces with unthickened epoxy then a thickened epoxy adhesive mixture.  I taped the fiberglass in place, with a clamp at the thin forward end.

The fiberglass extended past the forward end of the skeg–later it would be cut to a specific length–and I used some of the leftover epoxy (thickened even more) to fill the small step between the plywood and fiberglass there, so that I could sand the transition smooth later.

The remains of the day and the state of other parts of the boat gave me a good opportunity to do a bit of prep work inside the aft half of the hull, where I installed fairing compound to ease the edges of the hull chine tabbing as needed.  These edges had been more noticeable than I wanted because my peel ply strips during installation weren’t wide enough, and at that time I didn’t fully understand the purpose of the strips as a means to fair out the transitions, which is the main purpose of the peel ply as used on this particular build–something the manual could, but doesn’t, stress during the earlier stages of the build.  Since the interior of the boat was to be painted, the minor fairing work would not be noticeable.

From here, the next major step would be to sheathe the hull exterior in fiberglass.  I’d already brought the hull to a state of readiness for this, even though I’d first have to assemble the cut halves for the first time and check the hull fit and fairness at the seam, so unlike the manual description that seemed to assume no exterior work had yet been done, I did not have to approach all the hull fairing work now, but there were still a few areas where I could–and now did–touch up the previous work to prepare for the fiberglass ahead.  This brought the day to a natural conclusion.

I spent the first part of the day on various sanding and milling tasks to prepare for fiberglassing a variety of “edges”, to provide an encompassing term.

I milled a roundover on the junction of hull and gunwale on both sides of both boat halves, and sanded it smooth, along with lightly sanding the filled gunwale installation holes on the inside of the hull.    I also sanded flat the breasthook and the protruding nub of the gunwales forward of it, and rounded the aft top edge of the breasthook.

At the aft end of the bow section, I block sanded the vertical bulkhead edges to clean them up, and then sanded a bevel into the aft edge of the foredeck where it joined the bulkhead.  The bevel was required here because this edge required fiberglass for protection, but since the foredeck had to remain completely flush with the bulkhead when all was said and done, the bevel was required to give space for the fiberglass.  I used a sanding block with a piece of 1/4″ plywood taped to the bottom side to easily create the angle for the bevel.  Once I’d sanded in the angle, I rounded the top corner.

On the stern section of the boat, I also rounded the transition between hull and gunwale, and block sanded the bulkhead edges, while also fine-tuning the roundover I’d previously installed on the top edge of the transom inwales.

With all the sanding and milling operations complete, and the boat vacuumed and cleaned up, I started by installing a fillet beneath the breasthook, which I accomplished by inverting the bow half on the bench and leaving the bow hanging well out so I could crawl, hermit crab-like, into the space and form the fillet with relative ease.

Next, I turned to the day’s main event to install fiberglass over the breasthook, gunwales, and bulkhead edges on the forward half of the boat, using the various cloth I’d cut last time.  There was one layer of 6 oz. cloth to cover the tops of the gunwales and down onto the interior of the hull, one layer of 4 oz. cloth to cover the breasthook and wrap over its aft edge, and two layers of 6 oz. at the vertical bulkhead edges aft.  The aft edge of the foredeck received one layer of 4 oz. cloth covered in peel ply to smooth the transitions, and  at the gunwales, I installed peel ply below the hull edge to smooth the transition onto the hull.

On the stern section, I used two pre-cut pieces of 4 oz. cloth to cover the inwale, wrapping over the transom edge and overlapping the green tape I’d placed there (the fiberglass would later be trimmed at this  tape line), and more 6 oz. cloth over the gunwales, with two layers of 6 oz. on the aft bulkhead edges.  Again, I installed peel ply beneath the hull edge to smooth the transition of the tabbing onto the hull.

Later in the day, I applied an epoxy fill coat to all areas.  After, I trimmed the fiberglass at the transom and pulled the masking tape.  The 6 oz cloth, particularly on the gunwales, tended to drain the resin a bit to the low (outboard) sides, so I thought I’d likely roll on another fill coat on the morrow to completely fill the weave of the heavier cloth.  This would probably be required on the bulkhead edges too.

Now that the forward half of the boat was gloss-coated on the inside, it was time to permanently install the foredeck.  I applied unthickened epoxy where needed to prepare bare wood or plywood edge grain, then installed beads of thickened epoxy adhesive on all bearing surfaces:  mast step and daggerboard trunk; the hull edges along the foredeck; the edges of the foredeck itself; and the aft bulkhead and cleats.

I set the foredeck in place and secured it with the 11 screws and little pads.  I had good epoxy squeezeout everywhere, as there should have been.

Next, I cleaned up all the excess epoxy and removed masking tape as needed.

Belowdecks, there was also good epoxy squeezeout everywhere, visible only through the eye of the camera.

With the foredeck installed, now I could move on and install the breasthook.  I had to modify the aft part of the edges to get the pre-machined part to fit closely enough into the curve of the stem and gunwale (it didn’t need to be a perfect fit, just close).  To hold it at the proper level, I hot-glued some small alignment blocks to the top, which blocks rested on the edge of the hull planking on each side, and glued the breasthook in with the usual routine of epoxy priming and thickened epoxy.  The gunwales continued their curve above the height of the forward end of the breasthook, but this area would get trimmed down once the epoxy cured.

Despite keeping the photos above all together for continuity of the project, in reality I did the breastook fitting first, then, before installation, I installed epoxy fillets along the intersection of foredeck and hull.  With leftover epoxy, I filled the holes at the gunwale leftover from its original installation; I hand-milled small countersinks at each hole location before filling it with the thickened epoxy.

While I was finishing up this work, the power went out, always my favorite thing.  We’d survived a doomsayer windstorm overnight without issue, but now, with bright sunny skies and only moderate wind gusts of perhaps 25, we lost it.  But the shop was bright, and I had no immediate need for power tools, so I continued working on various preparations to their natural end.  The power came back on around 1400.

I turned my attentions to the stern half, which required some minor preparations before tomorrow’s planned work.  As with the forward half, I filled all the gunwale installation holes, and also touched up the various alignment slots in the transom and stern quarters. I should note that my filling/fairing technique has always been to sneak up on the final result with multiple levels of fairing application as needed, never to overfill and sand down.  This is one place I have consistently differed with the instructions in the build manual for this boat.

At the same time, I used some of the epoxy to fill a second time the screw holes at the gunwale reinforcements I’d installed earlier.  The top transom edge required rounding over, which I accomplished with a sanding block.

The next major step in the process was going to be to install fiberglass reinforcement on many of the exposed edges, including the tops of the gunwales, the exposed bulkhead edges, breasthook, and transom inwale.  To this end, I cut various pieces of fiberglass and peel ply to size as directed in the manual.  There’d be a bit more sanding and milling prep to certain areas before I could do the glasswork, and with curing epoxy everywhere that would be the first task next time.

To get a bit ahead of the future game, I did one minor step required to the skeg, which was the last major component to finish off the hull itself.  As described in the manual, I tapered the aft edge of the plywood skeg on each side, then built a little dam of three layers of masking tape on both sides and injected some thickened epoxy material into the gap.  Once cured, this would give the trailing edge of the skeg the hardness of epoxy–exactly how will make itself more clear in subsequent steps.  The skeg would be sheathed in fiberglass before installation.