This week was a hard one.  We had a fiberglass screw up early in the week.  We also lost our dear friend and fellow boat lover-builder, Campbell Massey.  We had hoped he would make it long enough to take a ride in our new boat, but the cancer won.  We will miss him!

Our fiberglass mess was something everyone should pay attention to.  When you use two different products that have different mixing ratios, pay attention!  One product is a 3/1 mixing ration, and the other is 1/1.  Using the 3/1 instead of 1/1 will cause the fiberglass to not cure, leaving a sticky mess.  So, what we had to do was scrape it off, lift the cloth off, scrape some more, then wash with lacquer thinner and then wash again with a green scrub pad and water.  After it dried, we recoated it all with the correct product ratio.  What a lesson!  It was successful, though and only took two days.
We cut the holes for the side opening hatches.  We found used ones on our last trip to the coast and they are going to really be nice.  We are waiting for special hinges for the large front hatch.  We can't fit it until we know how the hinges fit.
Richard is now working on the two seats in the pilot house and the two cupboards in the cabin.  In between designing and building, he gets some sanding done, as it is a never ending task.  All in all, though, the boat is coming along nicely.  We got the two part epoxy enamel paint this week.  We want to see how it goes on before we buy all we need, because it is pretty expensive and may be hard to work with.  This paint will go on the front deck, and the pilot house roof, and maybe other places if we find it fairly easy to use.  This is an off white color.

This week we had several projects, the first being the side foot rails.  As usual, nothing goes as planned.  After steaming the board for the rail, it broke while we were screwing it down.  So, using an alternate method, the next rail pieces were laminated.  We broke one of these pieces, also.  Anyway, we finally got one side done and will get the other side soon.  Richard moved to the next project, which is the front hatch.  It is amazing how long it takes to build a hatch!  By the time it is done, it will include 23 pieces of wood.  All these pieces have to fit together like a puzzle.  Some of these pieces are only 2 or 3 inches long.  Needless to say, it is very time consuming.
In the next day or two we will be putting 10 oz fiberglass cloth on the roof of the pilot house.  This is way up there, so it will be critical to take care not to fall off while putting the resin on.  No falling off is allowed!
There is a tremendous amount of detail sanding right now-15 to 20 minutes at a minimum every day for a month or two.  Maybe a smaller boat would have been easier, but oh well!