Half a Sole and a Bow

It was a glorious summer day and I spent nearly all of it in the garage, on purpose, and wouldn't have it any other way. With my wife away taking care of srs bsns, I got to cut and epoxy and, at times, admire with abandon.

First, I tackled the bow area. This was something I've dreaded since first reading the manual in December and my avoidance of it came to fruition over the last two months. Every other bay's been complete for a month. Most of the avoidance was because of my poor excuse for tack welds and subsequent fillet disaster which made a bad situation worse. In the end, I probably spent more time in this compartment than all the others combined.

Once I got the fillets sanded down to something I could work with, it actually went surprisingly fast. I first measured out a pattern with a cut up paper bag, then transferred that pattern to a "scrap" row of fiberglass. I say "scrap" because it was the other half of the long, narrow row I used for the topside panels awhile back. I worked quickly here so didn't take any pictures, but in the end, the joint is super strong with several overlapping areas of 6 oz and 9 oz 'glass. Where I used to feel nervous about banging into things, now I say bring 'em on.

Bow compartment finally 'glassed. Just needs sanding.

Strips of 9 oz 'glass line the seams over a couple layers of 6 oz 'glass.

I'm glad I spent so much time getting these fillets right. There's no way they would've been flat and of course flat equals structural integrity. This is one area (not there are many of them) where cutting corners just can't do. Though this area will be filled with flotation and sealed forever, I plan to sand and paint this for the added protection against moisture and whatever else can get in there. I'll also note that there's no way I could've done as good a job 'glassing at the bow if I didn't have all the practice to date as I prepped the hull.

I'll install the lower breasthook tomorrow. A test fit of it today required the help of a 600 pound Irwin. I'm surprised how much the bow still needs to flare out and I'm concerned that epoxy and screws won't help much. I'll just have to keep the faith and hope it doesn't fly out and hit me in the groin.

While thinking about flying breasthooks, I cut a few more planks for the sole. I noticed that some of the external-facing planks of padauk darkened from the sun. I pulled a couple from the interior of the stack and will need to be careful to prevent these from darkening, too. A little bit of sanding to get bright again is all that's really required, but I didn't want to bother with sanding.

Anti-UV varnish will extend the color for a long time, and once installed in the cabin, sun exposure will be minimal. So once I get these screwed down I'll move them to the basement out of the sun until finished. Oh, did I mention how awesome it looks? It's hard to describe how it feels to look at it in the boat, and I haven't even painted yet. I am sure I am building to one of those highlight moments, which partly explains the incredible sense urgency to get this part done. That, and I have maybe 2 more months of cooperative weather.

Planks test fitted. The grain will dictate the final placement.

Close up of the accent board against the regular boards. You can see how the bright orange color of the sanded wood contrasts with the more mature color. The mature color is stable with some anti-UV varnish. These are just placed here for now - not screwed or spaced yet.

View from aft-forward.

Need to build an accent board for behind BH 7 and below the footrest.

Some planning becomes necessary as this project continues. First, it's not exactly clear to me what the fair curve of the sole should follow. I assume it's along the outside edge of the cleats. But the cleats stop pretty far short of the floor and I'd like to have more sole. That means lots of fitting, beveling, and incremental cutting to get this right. I'll probably get to the correct bevel with some scraps of pine then transfer the angles over as necessary (which is the method used on other blogs.) I'm also tempted to put another accent board in as I move outboard. However, I may need to send Jon a few bucks every time I take my boat out as a royalty payment for nothing short of stealing his idea.

Second, I have a gap aft of the centerboard trunk where I plan to put a second accent board. That part's easy. The question is how functional do I want it to be, and how much do I care about seeing the wires. I'm adding a dual busbar on or near BH8 to catch the wires coming from the transom, thereby minimizing the wires that run forward. There are a lot of potential wires: stern light, laz lights, locker lights, 12v outlets, rear cabin LEDs, and the speaker wires, too. Having a liftout section will let me run wires without drilling too many holes. Building a small panel box attached to BH8 would be a good place to collect these wires and funnel them out of sight. It's the same principal as building a box behind BH2 except this one is at the back of the boat.

Part of me feels like I'm overthinking/overengineering, but I know with certainty that if I'm cozying up for the night, anchored off Bear Island, and I'm staring at my feet, and I can see wires back there, I'm gonna be pissed. That just won't do.