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finished gluing the planks and am starting to lift the deck section up to the ceiling. there are slits in the plywood under the planking that will be cut, yielding the mother-in-law hatch cover, the engine cover, and then all the rest

this means outside CONSTRUCTION is done. yeah!

now it's back to working on the inside of the boat. but now it will be WIDE open for all that installation stuff

OK, deck's at the ceiling. Last coat of paint is on the inside. Time to start installing.

That is looking great Must be exciting to be at that stage!

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....

it's been exciting all the way.........botz-r-fun

With that long Bow ....looks like a Corvette on water... beautiful...

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The Bitterness of Poor Quality, Remains Long After The Sweetness of Cut Price is Forgotten...Thanks Dad R.I.P.

For sure.
Docking will definitely be a "sit up on the back deck with your feet on the cushions" operation. With the forward raised deck, I'm not able see the bow and can just barely see the top of my bow light when sitting in the cockpit . Just one of those things one gets "used to", I guess.
Seems strange for a boat only 17' long.

here is what I came up with to distribute the rear single lifting eye load to the stringers.

WOW that is a beautiful piece of work.

Hey Neel, I am about to filp. What do I do next???
I assume I sand the sheer matching the curve of the cross-beams. The side planking gets trimmed to half way down the sheer timber at the transom and faired forward from there. Do I then start on the finishing timbers or do other stuff first? The instructions get a bit vague friom here.

Cheers,
Glenn.

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....

Glenn, After you flip, the sheer does get faired to the deck beams. After you do that, I recommend you place your "thinking chair" near the ass end of the boat and stare at it for a long while before you do anything with the side planking or the finishing boards. Trisailor followed the plans and did a great job on the finishing boards using long striips that run the length of the boat giving them a "cutting board" effect. There is actually a transition point similar to the one where the bottom planking overlaps and then meets up with the side planking. You will also have to cut out two deck beams (I think) and use them later in other locations. After I did that, I spent many hours just cleaning up the inside of the hull and then coating everything again with epoxy. This was difinately the worst part of the build !!! By the way, I am using two layers of 6mm plywood and then a thin layer of mahogany to make up the finishing boards with a 3/4" by 1" outer strip of mahogany, running from the transom to the bow. I had to kerf the plywood to make the sharp bend by the transom. I hope some of this makes sense, but if not, that thinkiing chair will come in handy!! I know trisailor has some great pictures of the process, and I am sure he will share them. Take care, and good luck with the flip......Neel

hi track- those 1" x 5/8" finishing board strips followed the bend quite reluctantly, and as the band got wider, the radius became even tighter. After about the second of nine strips, I had two compression failures in a row. At that point, I decided to soak the wood and prebend EACH strip before gluing. To get the wood thoroughly wet, I joined two lengths of 2" white PVC tube and capped one end. I raised one end about 3 feet off the ground and supported the tube in about five places. I filled the tube with water. I then inserted a full length strip into the tube, making sure it was completely submerged. I screwed a little screw-eye into the end with an attached end, so I could pull it out after being in the water for a minimum of several hours. I then clamped it, wet, without glue, to the previously glued strips. Then I let it dry in place. After the strip had dried, I unclamped it, applied wood dust filled epoxy (for a more invisible glue line) and re-clamped it. Tedious, yes. But once I got going, one side was drying as the other side got clamped, things went smoothly.

a few more in the sequence

a couple of the earlier pictures were out of sequence. sorry. here are a few more clamping shots a little further on.

as Glen said, the epoxying of the undersides of those finishing boards is definitely NO FUN. removing old epoxy lumps, on your back, in cramped and uncomfortable quarters, getting things smooth enough to give those surfaces a sealing coat of epoxy. it's what I'm doing today.

Thanks Guys. Another blinking transition to deal with!!! The comments and photos help heaps.
I coated everything as I went so I have some cleaning up to do but not all. The worst thing I have is up forard the staples came through and instead of little holes actually blew out little plugs of timber. I was going to keep it all bright, but filling those will make it look blotchy so it will probably now be painted inside.

I sense lots of C&C time as already noted I don't like the aft deck area as designed. Almost finished my cradle (metal "C" channel) and hope to invert it onto the boat before I flip this week. A friend is bringing a tow truck (tilt tray). We are considering tipping the tray right up and using the winch to do the flip. The tray angle will minimise the drop and it can be lowered easily. We may use the bobcat or tractor as an anchor to help control the lower. Haven't totally ruled out a flipping party, but then gotta have friends for that and crazy Guys that build boats don't tend to have those...

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By the time I have built a boat, I'll be ready to build a boat....