First Starboard Plank

The bottom is on.

In this photo I have put the plank on to check for size and mark out where the glue will be going. You can also see here the cuts made in the stringer to get the tighter curve of the rocker at the stern.

As with all the plywood panel gluing I sand and recoat with epoxy where the glued surfaces are including the stringers. All plywood I use I have pre coated with epoxy on the interior side twice, with a light sanding between coats. I prepared quite a few sheets back in Summer when it was an easy job, which should get me through the winter.

Here the bottom is glued in place. Notice I have also installed the inspection ports already.

At this point I am ready to start fairing the stringers prior to putting the hull panels on.

Building efficiency

Now that I have started on the second hull I have come to realise that building the two hulls separately has not been such a bad thing after all. Not that I have made any big mistakes on the first hull, but I have developed more skill building the first one so I have learned how to do things more efficiently this time around and seeing what the finished hull looks like, I can see what parts of the construction are more important.

Anyway here is some more progress to report. Hopefully I can give some other insights this time around.

First stringer on here. This was chosen as it is the straightest stringer in the hull so has the least tendency to push the frames around (which is bad). The framing I set up for the bulkheads does not hold them in place very securely so need to balance these pushing forces as I go and keep using the laser level mounted above the hull, shining down the centre line. To keep it perfectly straight until all the stringers are on.

In the pic below you can see where a stringer joins to another one with a scarph type joint. It is this bow area which is very hard to visualise until you see it like this.

Here is a pic of the bow locker floor being glued in place. I did this the same way on hull 1 and it worked out well. Once the sides of the hull are on it is very time consuming to cut a panel to size, such as is the case with bunk panels. This way it is quick, as it is cut over size and faired when the stringers are faired.

Temperatures have got low again here so it is good to have the fibreglassing and painting done for now. This wood working and glueing is quite a nice change.