Dane and I had a little while Saturday (yesterday) and got out and put part of a second layer on the cabin roof. Went fairly well, up to the point that we got rained out.

We've been getting a lot of rain from the hurricane (Fay) that's been floating around Florida flooding them out for a week, it seems like.

The second layer of the roof certainly seemed to stiffen it up some. Also got the "overhang" rough trimmed on the side where I had been letting the sheets hang over long. That makes things look symetrical (and also makes it easier to cover with a tarp. read more »

Got home and got busy...

First off was to unfasten (and saw off, since the glue worked great) the cabin top stringer at the port stern corner where I had mismeasured and it was way too high. Got it loose, recut the vertical and refastened it.

Then I got busy putting a layer of cabin top on. This is somewhat out-of-order from the recommended build order, but I'm trying to get things closed in a bit more rapidly since I pretty much am having to build outside without cover. I'm sure I will pay some price with difficulty in getting some of the interior bulkheads fitted and the like, but I think I can deal with that better than having to pump things out on a regular basis.

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Another evening with progress!

Dane and I got the cabin posts all notched at the top and the stringer installed between them. Had a little time getting everything cut level, despite my efforts yesterday at marking them. Still had a couple wrong.

My suggestion is get one marked "right" and work from there with a long level. I have better luck with that approach than trying to measure things, but that may just be me. read more »

Spent an hour building a jig to measure the cabin post heights (and in the future flex the cabin roof over). After church Dane and I cut a template for the roof curve and used it to mark the posts and trim them to height.

Seemed to come out pretty well.

The designer specifies a 6'5" interior height, but notes that you can increase it a little for more headroom. That amount seemed good down the centerline, but with the roof curve, it seemed like it would be a little low standing at the sides (drivers seat), so we increased it a little. Not drastic, but I think it will be helpful. read more »

Dane and I got to work a good while this afternoon.

Got the cabin posts notched (at the bottom) and mounted. My fit and finish (as usual) isn't as good at the bottom as I would like, but it came out ok.

A good smear of adhesive and screws/lag bolts. I don't think they are going anywhere.

Next step will be cutting a roof curve model and measuring the height of each post and cutting it to fit. I just left them all plenty long for right now. read more »

Got home and Dane and I got to work on things a while. He sanded the side decks in between helping me hold things.

I had never mounted the deck supports on Frame C and Frame J (should have been done when I made the frames, but I missed them), so we cut and put them in place.

Also sealed some more of the bilge, especially up in the front of the bow.

Spent a while trying to figure out where to cut the doorway cutouts in Frame C and J... wasn't quite sure I had it right so I decided that I would wait and remeasure tomorrow before I mess something up. read more »

Spent a while pouring over the plans and figuring out where the cabin posts were. I had sent the designer a question regarding the size of some of these support posts. Felt kind of dumb when he immediately pointed out that the information I was looking for was on sheet 10 of the plan set.

Loaded up with Dane and we bought lumber for the cabin posts and some lag screws for fastening it.

Money = $45.94 (wood and lag screws) + $3.22 (tax) = $49.17

Time = 1 hour

Got to work a good bit this evening on the side decks. Got them pretty well planed off, smoothed out and filled/coated with epoxy.

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When thinking through the build process so many times over the previous months, there are plenty of problems and "hard parts" I've considered. Some haven't been nearly as difficult as I thought, while other "easy" things have wound up being really tough.

One thing I had never even considered though was that when the hull is upright and you're working on the inside areas, any sawdust or other trash that you generate winds up in the bilge. read more »

Yesterday morning for a few minutes, and this afternoon for an hour or so, I worked on adding a few fillets and sealing up some gaps between hull panels on the interior.

Some of the inner layer of hull bottom panels had a few gaps. The outer layer was sealed from the outside, but I wanted those areas sealed on the inside so that water in the bilge (as has been happening in the recent rains) won't seep down into the hull layup.

Got most of that done, at least in the worst areas to get water in the rain :-)

Time = 2 hours