I pulled the peel ply strips to reveal the  tabbing beneath.  In many cases, it was tough to get the peel ply started, as I should have used wider strips that would have left more of the release fabric unsaturated, but once I got a section lifted, it was easy to pull off the rest.

Afterwards, I sanded around the tabbing as needed to clean up the edges and surrounding hull, and lightly scuff the fiberglass itself.

I also lightly sanded as needed the minor repairs to the fillets I’d completed last time.

Next, I completed several shaping and preparation steps with the upper bulkhead gussets, including rounding over the tips where they terminated into the bulkhead, and some other preparations for installing a layer of 6 oz. cloth over the gussets and adjacent gunwales, which I did next.  I left portions of the fiberglass overhanging with intentions to trim the excess later.

Now was a good opportunity to add two layers of 6 oz. cloth to the forward edge of the daggerboard trunk where it met the hull.  I applied several strips of peel ply over the fiberglass.

Now that the hull tabbing was complete, I could think about the aft tanks/seat assemblies.  I test-fit the longitudinal side panels, fitting them to the slots in the transom and taping to the short bulkheads at the forward ends, and cut to fit some cleat stock provided for the purpose along the top, inner edges of the panels; then, I epoxied the cleats in place on the bench.  Note that the angle formed by these panels is designed so that the bow of the boat, when nested, will fit right in there.

This seemed a good place to end things for the day.

Since I used fast hardener for the fillets, I started by water-washing the new epoxy to remove any blush formation, after which I lightly sanded the fillets to clean up as needed, as well as the surrounding surfaces of hull and bulkhead.  The fillets came out well overall and required little sanding other than as a preparatory step for subsequent work, but as expected, in some of the tight inside/3-way corners, I thought I might want to touch things up a bit.

With a small batch of epoxy, I applied more to some of the problem areas, smoothing the repairs with a fingertip and cleaning up those inside corners.  This touch-up focused on the corners where the gussets met the hull and bulkhead on each side, and the inside corner of the upper gussets.  Cleaning up the corners made the fillets look better, and they’d be smoother once the boat was finished, but mostly they made me feel better too.  I’d sand the new work lightly once it cured later.

Now I was ready to move on to the day’s main event, which was installing the fiberglass tape over all the interior hull seams (chines).  I’d prepared lengths of 2″ wide tabbing and peel ply for all the chines earlier; the manual helpfully gave all the lengths required, and while I took the time to measure a couple of the actual seams for confirmation, I found the published dimensions to be accurate.  There were 22 tapes all told.

With the inside of the boat completely clean, and working from a wet-out station on a nearby bench, I installed all the tabbing over the remainder of the day, starting with the boat tipped to port for access and working from bow to stern, lowest chine to upper chine in each of the boat’s four compartments.   When I completed the port side, I canted the boat the other direction and did the same thing on the starboard side.

I applied strips of peel ply over all the tabbing, which helped the fiberglass lay down well into the contours, but would mainly help provide the smoothest end result and ease the edge transitions between tape and hull.  One might recall that all the hull panels were fiberglassed before assembly.

In hindsight, I wished I’d cut the peel ply a bit wider than I did.  As it was, it was roughly 1″ wider than the tapes, giving me a theoretical 1/2″ (max) on each side, but in reality but a bit more on either side would have been helpful not only to ease alignment of the tape over the length, but to ensure plenty of the peel ply on both edges to taper the transition between fiberglass and hull.  I cut the peel ply a little shorter shorter than the fiberglass tapes, and used short pieces to finish off where the tapes terminated at the bulkhead fillets on each end, since peel ply is not that adaptable to curves and contours.    The white edges of the peel ply made the work look kind of ratty at this stage, at least it looked that way to me, but it was only temporary till the epoxy cured overnight, and I was confident with the condition of the actual tabbing itself and knew it would look good once revealed.

Note that in the bow compartment, the two lowest chine tapes overlapped one another at the stem, and, anticipating this as I installed the first–port–side, I cut back the peel ply there upon installation so that when I installed the starboard tape later, it overlapped the fiberglass only on the tape beneath.

 

 

I lightly sanded the edges where the new gussets met the hull and bulkheads, as well as around the daggerboard trunk and upper mast step, to clean up any bits of epoxy that might have been there (there really wasn’t any), and also lightly sanded the faying surfaces all around where the bulkhead and gusset fillets would soon be installed.  Afterwards, I thoroughly cleaned the inside of the boat to prepare for fillets.

I planned the fillets in two stages:  first the bulkhead fillets, around the base of the daggerboard trunk, and part of the upper gussets; then, once those cured sufficiently, I’d do the gussets themselves, and any remaining adjacent areas.  3-way corners were tough enough to fillet under any circumstances, never mind when all the fillets were wet at once.

Working on one side at a time, with the boat tipped up for improved access, I installed the fillets on the main bulkhead, daggerboard trunk, and half the undersides of the upper fillets, cleaning up the excess epoxy as thoroughly as possible.  I also chose to fillet the forward side of the after bulkhead, where the seat tanks would eventually be built, since it seemed that the hull chine tabbing would partially overlap the fillets at the ends, and I thought it’d be nice to have these fillets in place now even though the instructions suggested waiting till the remainder of the aft tanks were constructed later.  I’d just conjoin the partial fillets later.  I used epoxy with fast hardener for these fillets so that they might cure enough before the end of the day to allow me to continue with the gussets later on.

With some epoxy leftover from the fillets, I also did a first round of filling on the main bulkhead slots on the outside of the hull, and also a bit around the towing tube in the stem.

Next, I sanded the glossy epoxied surface of the foredeck and hatch to remove gloss, clean up from the overfilled, potted-epoxy hatch dog locations around the hatch, and otherwise prepare the foredeck for the next steps.  The various construction steps were now complete, and the foredeck awaited its time to be installed in the boat, which wouldn’t happen till after the boat was cut in two a bit later.

In the early afternoon, awaiting the first fillets to cure, I prepared all the fiberglass tape for tabbing over the hull seams inside the boat, along with strips of peel ply to cover it.  I’d be installing this tabbing as soon as all the fillets were complete.  The manual provided lengths for all the tapes (I confirmed several with actual measurement), and I laid out the strips according to their eventual locations in the boat.

By now, the first round of fillets had cured sufficiently for me to continue with the remaining fillets around the gussets and upper portion of the daggerboard trunk.    These were complex areas to fillet, and it seemed likely I’d have to touch up a few areas later for best appearance, but they turned out fairly well.  Only the fillets on the aft side of the bulkhead would be visible in the finished boat, but I wanted them all neat regardless.

With the main bulkhead installed and cured overnight, my next task was to install the eight supporting gussets.  Made from plywood, and pre-shaped and -rounded from the kit, these gussets provided the crucial structural support required to ensure the boat was stiff and secure in two halves, both when mated and separated.

First, I used a straightedge held across the boat at the bulkhead to sand down the top edges of the bulkheads on each side so they were flush with the top edge of the hull, as installed, the bulkhead sections were slightly proud, but had to be just flush before installing the gussets.

Earlier, I’d coated the gussets with one coat of epoxy, and now I lightly sanded as needed to prepare them for installation.  Beginning with the lower gussets, which went on either side of the bulkhead and adjacent to the pie-shaped doubler plates on the bulkheads, I dry-fit the gussets, marked around them, and masked off the surrounding hull and bulkhead.

The other pair of gussets were to be located on each side of the bulkhead at gunwale level.  To help hold these in position and flush with the gunwales, I installed small alignment blocks with hot glue and, as before, marked around each gusset and then masked off the hull and bulkhead around.

I installed the four lower gussets first.  I primed the plywood edge grain and faying surfaces in the hull, then installed a heavy layer of very thick epoxy adhesive to the gussets, pressing them tightly into place and ensuring good epoxy squeezeout all around.  I carefully cleaned up the excess epoxy, taking care not to disturb the position of the gussets in the process.  Only the thickness of the adhesive held the parts in place during curing.  For the gussets, I chose to use shop epoxy, with fast hardener, to help ensure the glue tacked up more quickly to avoid undue disturbance, and to allow me to install a couple other things in the boat later in the day.

I repeated the process with the two upper pairs at gunwale level.  As usual, the gluing mix included high-density filler and cabosil for strength and workability.

After lunch break, I felt comfortable working on the daggerboard trunk installation.  Unclamping the top cleats,  I rounded the lower corners of the cleats, cut them to length, and lightly sanded the piece as needed.  The instruction manual called for another coat of epoxy on the exterior surfaces of the trunk now, but that would take a whole extra day, and I didn’t see why that couldn’t wait till after installation.  Installing the trunk now would allow me also to install the upper section of the mast partners, and having both in place would advance the project significantly next time.

With the daggerboard trunk in place dry, and aligned with the alignment marks on the hull and forward side of the bulkhead, I installed six glue blocks to align and hold the part.  Before final installation, I drilled a 1/2″ hole through the bottom on centerline, in the general fore and aft center of the trunk, to allow me to use a pattern bit and router to make the opening from the outside later.  I installed the trunk in the usual way, with adhesive on the bottom and bulkhead sides and relying on the glue blocks to hold it in the proper place while the epoxy cured.

With the bulkhead and daggerboard trunk now in place, everything required to properly align the upper mast partners was in place.  Some time ago, I’d coated and otherwise prepared this small part for installation, so it was ready to go now.  With a couple temporary alignment blocks to hold the upper mast step in place on the bulkhead, I used a straightedge to determine the plane of the foredeck from the mast bulkhead to the daggerboard trunk and midships bulkhead, and aligned the top of the mast step with this.  Satisfied with the dry fit, I epoxied the upper step in place, keeping the straightedge in place to ensure the part cured in the proper orientation.

Before ending the week, there were a few things I could do on the foredeck.  It took some minor sanding to get the hatch cover to fit in the opening in the foredeck, what with the various epoxy coating that had occurred, but soon it fit as intended.  Then, as directed, I redrilled the five holes around the opening (I’d drilled these from the bottom side before installation of the hatch coaming) to a depth of 5/8″, coated the insides with epoxy, and filled them slightly overfull with a thickened epoxy mixture, leaving this to cure.  I’d sand this flush when I sanded the top surface of the foredeck soon.

 

Before getting to the main bulkhead final prep, I lightly sanded the spots on the hull where I’d filled the chines earlier, and cut off and sanded flush the fiberglass towing line tube in the stem.  Once I’d finished, I turned the hull upright and cleaned up the tabbing on the inside of the towing tube.

With the hull upright and supported at the mast step bulkhead and transom, I could make final preparations to install the main bulkhead.  I lightly sanded both sides of the two sections of main bulkhead.  The mating faces required sanding to better accept the self-stick spacers that I’d soon be installing, as well as for future next steps, and the exposed faces required enough sanding to prepare them for finishing steps in the future.  Once the sanding was complete, and the parts cleaned up, I installed the alignment pins to make the pair a single unit, and test-fit it in the boat.  I had to slightly round the bulkhead corners at the chines, where the chine fillets created a similar and opposite shape, and the forward plywood reinforcing pads at the top sides of the bulkheads interfered slightly with the hull because of the angles  involved, so I had to do some minor modification there as well.  These were expected modifications based on the advice from the manual.

Once I had a satisfactory dry fit, I prepared to secure the two panels together with self-stick balsa wood spacers.  This stock not only would hold the bulkheads together during their installation and subsequent steps, but also provided a suitable gap through which to ultimately cut the boat in half later.

First I had to cut the included stock into 1/4″ or so wide strips, using a sharp knife and a straightedge.  Then, I cut these into lengths as needed to fit around the outer edges of one of the panels:  quite close to the outboard edges, and about 1/4″ down from the inboard edges of the bulkheads, and the same distance or so on either side of each of the four fastener locations.  I’d intended to install these spacers on the other (aft) side of the bulkhead, which is what was shown in the manual, but somehow I ended up installing them on the forward side.   By the time I realized the error, I’d completed the installation, and there was no removing the strips.  Fortunately, I could come up with no reason why it mattered one way or the other, but I was annoyed with the mistake nonetheless. Sometimes I get into a “duh” zone.

I installed the alignment pins in the section with the spacers, then removed the paper from the top side to expose the adhesive before carefully installing the second, after bulkhead section on top, pressing it tightly into the adhesive.  I placed the bulkhead on the floor (on some spacers) and walked over it several times to press the adhesive firmly.  Finally, for some extra insurance to make sure the sections didn’t pull apart at all before it was time, I installed some bolts through the large fastener holes (4 total) and snugged them up with large washers on each side.

After cleaning the hull in way of the bulkhead location, I dry-fitted the bulkhead again, and marked the hull on both sides with a pencil so I could mask off the hull before installing.  I also masked the bulkhead on both sides; the masking would make cleanup of the epoxy adhesive much easier. I left the centerline mark on the forward side exposed for alignment purposes.

After masking, I did a final dry fit, and prepared for the final installation with several glued-on alignment blocks on the aft side (glued to the tape), and a couple wooden cleats nailed to the after bulkhead top edges that I could use to clamp the assembly in place at the gunwales.

To install the bulkhead, I first wet out the plywood edges with epoxy, along with the faying surface on the hull, then applied thickened epoxy adhesive–lots of it–to the plywood edge before carefully placing it in the boat, aligning it with the blocks and pressing it tightly into the slots in the hull and ensuring everything was positioned and aligned properly.  I had good epoxy squeezeout all over on both sides, which is what I wanted.  I clamped at the gunwales with the blocking as needed.

Afterwards, I cleaned up the squeezeout and removed the tape to leave a nice clean line at the joint in all areas.

With the day’s main event behind me, I turned to some smaller jobs, starting with the daggerboard trunk.  This required a pair of spruce cleats at the top edge (these cleats would help support and secure the foredeck later).  I’d been set to glue these on earlier, but wasn’t sure which way was up and forward on the trunk.  The top and bottom were not parallel, as the top edge had to follow the plane of the foredeck, and without the mid bulkhead in place at the time, I couldn’t trial-fit the piece to confirm.  But I’d checked the orientation earlier during one of the bulkhead dry-fits, and now with the orientation properly marked I could round over the forward corners and install the cleats, using temporary plywood strips nailed to the top of the trunk for alignment and glued and clamped in the usual way.

Next, I made final preparations to glue the foredeck hatch coaming in place.  This plywood piece featured a milled groove to accept a gasket later, and fit on the underside of the foredeck within some scribed alignment marks.  After lightly sanding the bonding surface on the foredeck–which I’d left bare for the purpose, other than some epoxy that had gotten on there during other parts of the foredeck work–and lightly sanding the coaming itself, which I’d coated top and bottom with epoxy during an earlier step, I glued the coaming in place in the normal way, with unthickened epoxy primer and a coat of thickened epoxy thereafter.  I clamped the piece in place and cleaned up all the squeezeout, paying particular attention to the top side to avoid any epoxy remaining at the edges of the opening and in the gasket groove.

The main bulkheads continued to be my priority, and to get started I trimmed the overhanging fiberglass from around the edges, and the hardware holes, and with a sanding block finished the edges back to the original plywood.  For the moment, I left the glossy epoxy surfaces alone, but they’d get sanded before installing the bulkheads.

With both bulkhead sections trimmed as needed, I assembled the two pieces together using the two dowel pins designed for the purpose.  These pins fit in the two small holes at the top edges of the bulkheads, and aligned the sections well.  The large hardware holes lined up well, and as directed I cleaned these openings up a bit with sandpaper to ensure perfect alignment through both bulkhead sections, and from both sides.

With preparations complete, I epoxy-coated the insides of the hardware holes as indicated in the manual, and epoxy-coated the mating faces of both bulkheads; these were the sides opposite those that I’d treated earlier.  Now the bulkheads had to cure before I could proceed with the next steps.

Turning to the foredeck, I trimmed the excess fiberglass as needed and block-sanded the edges back to their original shapes all around, as well as on the deck hatch.  Again, for the moment I left the glossy top surfaces unsanded, as it would be easier to sand this epoxy after additional cure time.  I flipped the foredeck over, and after some minor sanding work to ease the edges of the various cleats and structural members, I coated the underside with its first of two coats of epoxy, including the structural members and the curved edge doublers.  I left the area around the hatch opening uncoated, as soon I’d be installing the plywood hatch coaming in this area.  This coat of epoxy was designed to stabilize the foredeck and avoid any wood movement now that one side was glassed and coated; the final coat of epoxy on the underside wouldn’t occur till after the foredeck was dry fit in the boat, a few steps down the road.

A significant structural aspect of the boat and its ability to be in two halves would come from a series of plywood gussets to reinforce the main bulkhead on each side.  These gussets came pre-shaped in the kit. and as I perused the manual and with installation pending, I saw that it was advised to pre-coat these gussets with epoxy, so after a light sanding to clean up the parts, I rolled on one coat of epoxy on the exposed edges, top, and bottom, leaving the straight/square faying surfaces uncoated.

Throughout the build, I’d striven to stay several steps ahead and ensure a continuous work flow, with various side projects to turn to at any given time, but now, with the substructures all built as far as they could go and awaiting the inevitable epoxy cure time on crucial pieces, I was frankly running out of things to do.  If I could go back in time, I would have removed the main bulkhead from the hull quite a bit sooner, and then could have had the time-consuming epoxy work (time consuming only by nature of the required cure times) underway in the background.  The bulkhead could have come out of the boat anytime after the chines were glued from outside, and while I frequently read ahead in the manual, this didn’t jump out at me ahead of time, particularly as I had already found three or four other sub-projects to move forward with in the meantime.  But now it would have been helpful if I’d had the bulkhead pieces ready beforehand.

In any event, I’d soon be back at work with the bulkhead, but for now I turned to a small job:  installing a structural tunnel for a towing line/painter.  The kit included a small 3/4″ diameter fiberglass tube for this purpose, to be installed just aft of the stem.  With the chine fillets in place, I could proceed with this.  I began by marking the hull on each side as directed in the manual, and drilling small pilot holes to check the location from inside.  Satisfied with where the holes fell, I enlarged the pilot holes to 1/4″, drilling from each side first, but then ensuring that the drill bit passed straight and cleanly through from side to side, and finally drilled 3/4″ holes with a hole saw to accept the tubing.

The tubing fit right where it should, basically resting against the inside of the inner stem bulkhead, and now I taped it in place from inside and secured it around its outer edges with epoxy.  To speed things up, I used shop epoxy for this, as it would cure more quickly.

Indeed, after lunch I found things had set up enough that I could proceed with the final epoxy work to secure the tube from inside, which involved two sections of 6 oz. fiberglass set over a mass of thickened epoxy that I installed around the tube and nearby corners.  The fiberglass tied the tube into the sides of the hull, the inner stem, and extended down over the centerline and onto the bottom plank of the boat, covering the fillet I’d installed during the stem construction earlier.

Finally for the day, I turned the hull over and, after final preparations, fine-tuned the hull seams as needed, using a thickened epoxy mixture to fill any tiny low spots and clean up the chines, transom corners, and bulkhead slots as needed.

 

I prepared the two main bulkhead sections by removing the temporary nails, then lightly sanding around the glued-in doubler pads to prepare them for fiberglass.

I prepared 4 oz. fiberglass as needed to cover the aft bulkhead (the cutoffs from this rectangular piece would cover the portions of the upper bulkhead that required it), then wet out and installed the cloth in the aft bulkhead, pressing it tightly into the contours of the four plywood pads.  The forward section of the bulkhead required fiberglass only on the upper sections that would extend above the foredeck, and smaller pieces over the lower doubler pads for reinforcement.  I epoxy-coated the remainder of the plywood as well.

Next, I turned to the foredeck, and cut 4 oz. fiberglass to cover the foredeck, seat tongue, and foredeck hatch cover.  Before installing the cloth, I filled all the remaining nail holes in the top surface of the foredeck, then laid the cloth dry and wet it out.  At the seat tongue, the cloth wrapped over the top edge and down over the exposed edges of the seat.

I lightly sanded the new chine fillets and the inside of the hull as needed to clean things up for the next steps.

By mid-afternoon, the first layer of fiberglass on the bulkheads was sufficiently cured that I could come back and apply a fill coat of epoxy over the surfaces.

I also applied a fill coat of epoxy to the foredeck and hatch cover.

The two main bulkhead sections required several steps before they’d be ready for final installation, beginning with preparing and installing some pie-shaped reinforcements over the fastener locations.  These four openings would eventually be the key to the connection of the two halves of the boat.

These reinforcements began as a punch-out set of cutouts from 1/4″ plywood panels,  Once I’d removed the eight pieces and cleaned up the edges a bit, I sanded a bevel on the curved side of each piece, as directed.

The small reinforcements were labeled as to which of the two bulkheads they fit–forward or aft–but each had to be located according to which hole it fit; each hole had a little keyway, for lack of a better word, and each reinforcement fit only in one place.  There were scribe marks on the bulkheads to show how the pieces needed to be aligned.  Once positioned, after ensuring that the hole lined up perfectly, I drove three small nails through the pads and part way into the bulkhead to help align the pieces now and during gluing presently.

Removing all the pads, I coated all the bonding surfaces with epoxy as a primer, then mixed a thickened epoxy batch for final adhesion, thick enough to hold the pads without clamping (the small nails provided some clamping power, though they weren’t driven in all the way).  I cleaned up the excess epoxy and left the assemblies to cure.

Next, I turned to the daggerboard trunk, which was all glued up.  Now I cut off the excess trunk logs from the top and bottom, holding the saw flush with the t ops of the panels, and lightly sanded the cut ends as well as the two narrow vertical sides of the assembly to remove any epoxy drips.  The daggerboard trunk was ready for installation as soon as the main bulkheads were permanently installed.

The foredeck and hatch required several additional steps.  I’d removed the nails from the foredeck cleats over the weekend, and now I trimmed the excess cleats where they protruded past the seat tongue, and milled a rounded edge on the top side before sanding the areas clean.

Next, I trimmed the excess fiberglass from the narrow hatch edge and block sanded the remnants flush with the hatch surfaces on both sides.  I performed several minor preparatory steps to the hatch frame and hatch collar–mostly light sanding–and set these parts up for epoxy coating and initial assembly.  Both sides of the hatch frame would receive a coat of epoxy before installation, and the hatch itself required the inner collar/reinforcement to be installed first with epoxy as well.

With all the setup and other preparations complete, I turned to some epoxy work, and coated the hatch parts as needed (the frame had both sides coated at once, and held off the bench with cutoff nails driven into the bench), glued the hatch collar to the bottom of the hatch using six of the plywood nailing pads to secure it flat to the bench, then applied the first of two coats of epoxy to the edge grain at the hatch cutout in the foredeck, and filled the nail holes in the underside of the foredeck with epoxy.  Late in the day, I applied a second coat of epoxy to this hatch opening edge.

With the various sub-assembly parts all taken as far as they could for now, I spent the remainder of the day working on the hull, starting with sanding as needed the latest epoxy work on the hull seams and gunwale fillets.  I forgot to take photos of this work before I turned the hull upright (though I took video that will be published when the time is right), so I had to settle for the following photos that I took from each side when I had the hull propped up to do work on the interior chine fillets.  The bulk of the work on the exterior of the hull was complete at this point, though there’d be some minor touch-ups and fine-tuning before doing the hull sheathing sometime later.

I turned the hull upright and after final preparations installed all the fillets on the hull chines.  These were small fillets to fill the insides of the seams and ease the transitions so the chines could be taped with fiberglass soon, but not till after the main bulkheads were permanently installed.

To finish up the day, I applied another coat of unthickened epoxy to the edges of the gunwales.

I continued work on the foredeck and installed the cleats I’d prepared last time, following the usual steps of pre-wetting the bonding surfaces with epoxy, then installing in a thickened epoxy mixture.  I secured the cleats with the nailing pads and clamps on the after part of the seat tongue, and cleaned up all the excess epoxy.

Next, I cut and installed 2″ fiberglass tape over the centerline seams (just the aftermost 6″ of the aft part of the seam).  I also installed a strip of fiberglass on the outside edge of the foredeck hatch, a process designed to provide a more durable hatch edge.  Late in the day, I applied a fill coat of epoxy on this narrow edge as well.

I epoxied the second side of the daggerboard trunk in place, ensuring it was aligned with the first side at both ends.

Next, I sanded the hull to clean up the epoxy-filled chines all over.  Some minor fine-tuning remained, but overall the hull and chines were looking good.

I shaped the stem to form a smooth curve following that of the gunwale at the top edge, and tapering to a narrow profile at the cutwater.

With the hull back upright again, I removed the transom formwork, as the transom shape was now well-supported by the hull, inwales, and fillets.  I lightly sanded the transom fillets, then marked and cut the aft bulkhead to remove the center portion after removing the remaining stitching wires.  I also removed the amidships bulkhead, which would require a long series of steps to prepare it and its forward counterpart for final installation.

Now I installed epoxy fillets on both sides of the mast step bulkhead, and the after sides of the aft bulkheads; the forward sides would receive their fillets later, once the rest of the seat/tank components were in place.  I also touched up a couple places on the transom fillets, and fillet the remaining seams between the transom face, hull panels, and inwales.

I inverted the hull once more, then installed a small epoxy fillet where the hull met the underside of the gunwales along the entire lengths, using some of the excess epoxy to begin to fill the bulkhead tongue slots (aft and mast step bulkheads) and the hull chines where the amidships bulkhead had been.  I finished things off with a rolled coat of unthickened resin on the edge grain of the gunwales.  These steps with the gunwales were preparatory as we slowly neared the task of glassing the hull.

I began the day by removing the nails from the foredeck assembly.

I unclamped the first side of the daggerboard trunk assembly and lightly sanded the new fillets inside.  Then, the instructions called for applying an additional coat of unthickened epoxy to the inside faces of the trunk, after first masking off the faying surfaces where the trunk logs would eventually be bonded to the second side.  I set the wet pieces aside to cure, unable to do more than this at the moment.

I removed the clamps from the transom inwale, and lightly sanded the area as needed to clean up the forward, exposed edges of the inwale, and any small bits of cured epoxy in places it didn’t belong.  Then, I cut and removed the stitching wires at the transom, and removed the temporary alignment nails as well.  As needed, I sanded the inside seam to remove any epoxy bits.

After final preparations and cleanup, I applied structural epoxy fillets to the inside edges of the transom, and where the inwale met the transom along the underside.  I tipped the boat up to one side then the other as needed for better access in order to install the fillets.   I’d touch up any small voids or surface interruptions later, once the fillets had cured.  I used different-sized plywood filleting tools that came along with the kit and worked well for the job.  Milled by CNC, the fillet tools required me to sand an angle on the ends to create the sharp edge needed for proper fillet shaping.  The instructions indicated which size should be used for which fillets.

Next, I marked and cut the stem just forward of the inner stem bulkhead, leaving a bit of material to trim to final shape with planing and sanding.

Afterwards, I turned the boat upside down on the sawhorses and cleaned up the stem back to the inner stem bulkhead, leaving the area flat for now pending final shaping soon.

When I glued the hull seams, I kept the epoxy away from the many stitching wire locations; this left voids in the seams that I now wanted to fill before moving on very soon to cleaning up the hull and chines.  To that end, I applied thickened epoxy to the seams again, focusing on the void areas but troweling material into the entire lengths of the three seams on each side.  With crisp and fair chine lines so far throughout the hull build, final shaping wouldn’t take too much work, but it made sense to fill these voids first.  I left the epoxy to cure and moved on to the foredeck.

With a bit of time left before I had to make an early departure from the shop, I got to work on the support cleats for the foredeck.  Two long, narrow, transverse cleats required minor trimming at the ends to prepare the raw stock to fit the spaces required, which were marked with scribe marks on the plywood.  I cut the ends to slight angles as needed, then tapered the ends several inches in to reduce the thickness of the cleat where it met the curved side doublers of the foredeck.  I drilled pilot holes and partially installed some of the nails and nailing blocks I’d removed from the foredeck earlier.  This held the cleats lightly in place for the moment.

Next, I laid out, cut to length, and milled as directed some addition cleats along the after part of the foredeck, a protruding tongue-shaped feature called, not surprisingly, the seat tongue.  These cleats, along with the pair of transverse cleats, would be ready to epoxy in place next time, after which I’d also immediately install some fiberglass tape over the centerline seam to reinforce this underside of the foredeck.  For the moment, however, I was out of time for the day.