Sometimes you get the holes

Whoo, big updates. On Friday my father in-law David Wirrick (Captain Dave) came out to help me get the two smaller side stringers  cut, glued, built, sanded, anchored, and laminated. After the main stringer was in I assumed the two smaller ones would be a piece of cake. Couldn't have been more wrong. As mentioned in my last post, these two pieces were still anchored in well and took a fair bit of grinding, sanding, and grunting to get out. Because the transom and bilge area were still new enough to not require replacement the rear most deck piece is still intact thus covering the rear most foot of the stringers. What I decided to do ended up being pretty simple. Since the wood hasn't rotted, nor can I get it out, I cut it where the wood was best and removed the forward 6' to be replaced, then re-glassed the rear sections. However, while performing this seemingly simple task I made the mistake that all boat builders probably make at one time or another: I cut through the hull. I was so busy sanding off the last half inch of wood I wasn't paying attention to the vertical edge that I was whacking into. Thus, TWO holes ground right through *sigh*

Captain Dave and I started by ripping 6x 2 1/8" pieces of 3/4 ply. Since my only circular saw is battery operated we used his older Sears corded saw. As it turned out "older" meant "time to retire." We did the best we could but the saw just wasn't up to the challenge of quick cutting. As a result it took us over an hour to get the pieces cut, which unfortunately set the pace for the day. After we finally got the four pieces cut it was time to glue them together. Because we had unfinished CDX plywood, it had a pretty severe warp. As such we had to paste them together at opposite curves so they would cancel each other out to be strait. Dave drilled shallow holes for anchors while I mixed up the putty and hardener, we slathered a layer on, and clamped them together to harden. While that hardened I laid up two layers of glass on the holes I had cut in the hull. After everything hardened and Dave had sanded a bevel in the top of the first stringer I laid it down, filleted the edges and we laid up two layers of glass over it.

So here we are, two of the three stringers are in. One more to go, then floatation foam and the deck then it will technically be seaworthy according to Coast Guard regulations. However, it will still need a bunch more work before I am actually willing to take her out again. There's another big work day scheduled for Monday when Captain Dave and my Dad are both coming over. Soon it will be ready to outfit with paint and interior fittings. We may not make the 4th but dammit it will sail this summer!