November 5, 2024

PT11-8

Tuesday

My first task of the day was to epoxy-coat the mast step bulkhead (with its new cleat), and the opposite side of the aft seat support.  I epoxied both sides of the mast step bulkhead and supported it on three cut-off nails I drove into the bench for the purpose.

Next, I laid out and drilled 9/64″ holes along the top edges of the #3 (top) hull panels, which holes would later be used to secure the gunwales.  At the ends of these planks, I drilled smaller holes as indicated in the manual for the wires that would secure pieces together later.

I unclamped the newly-glued gunwales, then lightly sanded the four scarfs to remove excess epoxy.  I also removed the plywood nubs, leftover from when these parts were milled from the original stock, from the edges of the gunwales.  Then I set the assemblies aside for now.

At this point, I was nearly ready to begin assembling the hull from its component parts, though I couldn’t yet proceed since I required the mast step bulkhead, which was still in wet epoxy.  Reading ahead in the manual about the assembly process, I took care of a couple small steps to better prepare, including solvent-cleaning the assembly wire (purported to have oil on it, though I couldn’t tell) and cutting a number of short lengths of the wire to use for assembly.  I also installed short 2×4 pieces beneath the bottom panel to hold it off the bench and allow it to be easily moved around while wiring up the hull panels.

For now, this appeared to be all I could do to advance the project.

Total time billed on this job today: 3.75 hours