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.