Gunwales...

I spent several days filling cracks where the deck joins the rest of the boat...not much fun...then it was time to start on the gunwales! Fortunately I had just enough mahogany scraps left to be able to make them by scarfing three lengths together. I finally broke down and purchased a table saw (since I'll need it for sure when work begins on the mast and boom) which greatly simplified the process. After the scarf joints cured, I rounded off the edges and sanded the gunwales smooth, as it would be much more difficult to do once they are attached to the boat. Also, I attached the shroud anchors (purchased from duckworks), since it looked like they'd be more difficult to install once gunwales are in place.
There was some discussion on the Selway-Fisher yahoo group about installing hardware using the "drill, fill, drill" technique--just in time because I would have probably not thought to do that otherwise. The basic technique is to drill an oversize hole, fill it with thickened epoxy, and then drill a guide hole for the screws once this cures. The idea is to prevent water from wicking into the wood at points where hardware is attached to the boat (since these screws generally cannot be countersunk and covered), which would otherwise lead to eventual rot. In fact, I had already attached the pintles and gudgeons to the stern and rudder without using this technique, so I had to remove them and redo it...better now than later!
The gunwales were finally shaped and sanded and ready to install. I dry fitted the starboard gunwale first, notching out a place for the shroud anchor, and left it overnight to adjust to the bend...but sometime during the night the stress was too much for it and I found it cracked the next morning. No problem...I still had just enough scrap leftover to scarf on a new piece and try it again, this time, soaking it in hot water beforehand (the phrase "waterboarding before torturing" springs to mind) . But again the next day I found the new scarf joint had failed under the stress! The third attempt worked after re-doing the joint and flipping the board around (the other end was from a different board that wasn't so dried out).
Overall, more difficult than I had imagined, but well worth it as the boat now has a much more "finished" look!

'Glassing and Installing the decks

I've been in denial for the last month or so, but it's finally time to face the ugly truth...I'm probably not going to get this boat in the water in 2009. It is gradually inching along, and I'm trying to adopt a philosophical attitude about it-- just get as much done as possible before the cold puts an end to the epoxy work, and look forward to the Spring.
The deck is finally "finished"--glued in place and both sides are covered 6oz 'glass in epoxy. Of course it still needs to be sanded and varnished, but at last I can see what the final color of the cedar strips will be and therefore start thinking about what color to paint the outside of the hull.
More so than ever, I'm having to put alot of thought into the order in which things are done from here on out...for instance, I wish I'd have varnished the inside of the foredeck storage area before I put the deck on, as it'll be more difficult to reach inside now.
Getting the deck in place was alot harder than I expected. After getting all the individual strips glued into place, I had sawed, rasped, and sanded each half so it was an (almost) exact fit and flush with the outside of the hull. Each half was then removed (I used strips of plastic bags and packing tape to prevent the glue from sticking to the frames), and over the course of two weekends, I 'glassed and epoxied the inside of each half, allowing it to cure for several hours so that it still retained flexibility, before flipping it and glueing to the hull with thickened epoxy. I was surprised to find that after the 'glass/epoxy treatment, the deck halves no longer fitted the hull "exactly" as before--apparently, there was a bit of expansion in the cedar as the epoxy soaked into it. In the end, it worked out fine--it just meant I had to re-shape the edges after it cured into place, and I spent some anxious minutes trying to force the second half into position before it cured completely. Once again the extra 5 and 10 lb dumbbells laying around the house came in handy.
The other problem was the seam between the two halves...I had achieved a pretty tight fit before the 'glass/epoxy, but now it looked pretty ragged, as I wasn't quite able to get the two halves on exactly as they'd been dry-fitted. It was tempting to just fill it in with some epoxy and move on to the next part, but I'm glad it took an extra hour or so to cut a gap at the seam and fill it with a strip of cedar, layed edge-wise...it was well worth it. The outside layer of 'glass/epoxy was much easier and I finished it late in the day so there wasn't too much bubble formation...I did miss a few small ones, but overall I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Bottom work...

I've had the boat on her side for the last couple weeks while installing the runners along the bottom, the skeg, and the outer stem at the bow. The stem had to laminated from approx 5mm thick strips of mahogany, which I cut using the circular saw. It seemed like it would be easiest to build a plywood frame in the exact shape of the bow, and use this to bend the laminates into shape. If I'd thought ahead, I would have saved the leftover piece of plywood from cutting out the bow girder, but it only took a little while to re-create one using the plans.
The laminates were too thick to bend into place without breaking, so at first I tried planing them down a little. But that was too time-consuming and difficult...so I tried pouring boiling hot water on them just before bending, and that worked beautifully! Once all of the strips were bent into place and clamped in, I allowed them to dry for a couple days before disassembly and reassembly with epoxy. I then glued and screwed it to the bow, and scarfed it to the center runner.

The deck

Last week I took a half-day off work and drove to Annapolis to get some cedar strips from Chesapeake Light Craft...if I'd thought ahead, I'd have made the trip before beach season set in--because now it's impossible to get there on a Saturday morning with the traffic. Well, I wasn't doing anything critical at work anyway...
The plans call for plywood for the deck, but I figured this would be a good opportunity to learn a bit about strip-planking and I'd have a prettier deck to boot.
I just got to Annapolis ahead of the weekday evening rush hour, picked up the strips, and started to head home when my gear shifter started popping out of 3rd...then 5th. (I guess I should've taken it in a couple months ago when first gear started getting stiff). Fortunately 2nd and 4th gear still worked, so I was able to limp home, drop off the wood, and go straight to my mechanic, the odor of burnt clutch chastising me for procrastinating. Well, after 186,000 miles with virtually no maintenence, I really can't complain about a shot transmission...hmm...the distance a photon of light travels in one second--though it took me considerably longer :)

Fitting Out...Carlins

Installing the supports for the side decks (carlins) was more involved than I thought it'd be...the first step was fitting the "knees" which support the carlins at about the half-way point. There are two of these on each side, and it looked like it would be a nuiscance to try to use the joggle stick to get the right shape for the edges that meet the hull...instead, a piece of cardboard served pretty well as a template. I first dry-fitted the two aft knees and cut the notch for the carlins. Then dry-fitted the carlins themselves (after cutting out notches in the transom and the diagonal deck beams). Fortunately, I had a long, flexible piece of fir left over from a previous step, and this proved to be invaluable as a means of measuring the lengths of the carlins to be cut. It was a little tricky to get the right length as they follow a curve in two dimensions and the width of the side decks varies along the length according to the plans. Plus the carlins are pretty thick so it took some creative clamping to force them into the right shape. Once I got the first one in, I didn't have the heart to take it back out and epoxy it--so just epoxied it in-place. I was a little more brave gluing the second one, but it was a real bear getting it back in place with the epoxy making things slippery. But it got done, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief :) Once the carlins were glued in, the second pair of knees was fitted...

Fitting Out...Part 3

The next step was to fit the floor supports, which are made of 20 mm thick douglas fir, fitted to the bottom curve of the boat. One tool that I found very helpful in getting the right shape for the supports is a "joggle stick". There is a good article in Wooden Boat magazine that explains how to make and use one. It's basically just a thin, pointed board having numbered jagged edges so as to allow its position against a reference sheet to be reproduced accurately. (I made mine out of some scrap 6 mm plywood). Once the tip is placed against a series of reference points on the boat, and the outline of the joggle stick drawn, the reference points can be reproduced on the wood stock, allowing a smooth curve to be drawn.
If I could do this part over again, I probably would have fitted the floor supports that attach to the plywood frames before fitting the hull panels, which would have been much easier (just cut them flush with the frames). Then only 4 additional supports would have had to be fitted. As it was, even with the joggle stick, there was still a fair amount of trial-and-error to get a decent fit. Rather than try to get it perfect, I ended up filling in some gaps with thickened epoxy.
The supports that butt against the frames were easy to trim off to the correct height. For the ones in between, I used a length of kite string and cut two reference gaps to allow the top of the support to be defined.
Finally, I glued them all in (and screwed them from the inside of the frames), using the kite string to keep them in place while the epoxy cured.

Fitting Out...Part 2

It's been too cold to do any epoxy work for the last few months, but fortunately alot of the components could still be "dry-fitting".
The bow storage area is designed to have a shelf under the fore-deck, and a watertight storage compartment under the shelf, accessible via a round hatch. The shelf is held in place using fir fillets attached to the sides and to frames A and B...the side fillets had to be shaped to fit the curve of the bow, since they were too short and thick to make the necessary bend. There is supposed to be a fillet of thickened epoxy covered in 'glass tape to strengthen the joint between the frames and the hull--I decided to wait until I had the fir fillets epoxied in place before doing the epoxy fillet--that way it would be easier to fit the wood fillets in the corners, and also the extra epoxy would help hold them in place and alleviate having to screw through the hull to attach them.
The same procedure was used to create the frames for the stern seat/storage area...I had some extra fir strips leftover from an earlier stage, so I added a couple extra supports for the seat.
Once all the supports were in place, the plywood seat and shelf could be cut out...it helped to draw a centerline on the plywood and make some measurements off of that, but there was still a bit of trial-and-error involved.
Finally, the center deck support, and the two hatches (obtained from duckworks) were dry-fitted. I added a ring of plywood on the inside so the screws holding the hatch in place would have 1/2 inch instead of 1/4 inch to bite into.

Fitting Out...Part 1

The hull is now "done" (except for fitting the outer stem, runners, skeg, rudder, sanding and re-coating...ok, it's far from finished and I was just indulging in some wishful thinking :). Anyway, at this point I've reached the end of the build instructions that came with the plans...from here on out, the rest of the work should be self-explanatory based on the plan drawings. The next part of the build is mostly concerned with fitting out the inside of the boat.
The first task is to fit the inwales, which are made using two lengths of douglas fir scarfed together (I used a 60 mm overlap--probably should have been more, but it turned out ok). There was a little trial and error involved with getting the correct length, and a rubber mallet came in handy as they were not too easy to seat...what I really needed was a third arm! After dry-fitting, I applied the thickened epoxy and wrestled them back in (getting epoxy all over the garage wall, my pants, and one hand through a tear in the glove).
The next task is to fit out the inside with storage compartments...

'Glassing the seams

It's a beautifully designed boat, but this part of the build made me question (just momentarily) the wisdom of building a boat with so many chines! It was alot of grunt work...on the inside of the hull, all of the panel seams (chines) were glued with thickened epoxy between the wire ties, then the wire ties removed and the remaining spaces epoxied. The seams were then sanded smooth and fiberglass tape applied, soaked in un-thickened epoxy. During all of these steps, I had applied packing tape to the outside of the seams to prevent the epoxy from running out.
Then I got some friends to help flip the hull, and the whole process was repeated on the outside seams. Instead of just 'glassing the seams for the bottom 3 chines with fiberglass tape, I used 6 oz fiberglass cloth over the entire bottom for added protection when beaching the boat. The cloth was cut in a curve along the edges to follow the 3rd chine with about 2 inches of overlap. I was racing against time to get this step done before really cold weather set in for good, (it was the middle of November) and fortunately the weather cooperated.