I think I’m counting days of work on the boat consecutively, not calendrically: that is, between the last post and this one, two sunrises and sunsets have taken place, a rocket launch, and a syslunch. I’ve gone two full days and nights without touching the boat, but I’m going from Day 25 to Day 26 here just the same.

And a piss-poor day of work Day 26 was! I mixed up 25 grams of epoxy and filled in the weave in a couple of stubborn spots near the bottom / side junction, and I finally glued up the deck beam after thickening and spreading the leftover epoxy on its two component plywood arcs. It wasn’t much, but it had to be done, and I really want the hull glass to be fully cured before proceeding.

While updating the Slowblog with rocket launch photos, I found some old correspondence with CLC which we will discuss by and by. I remembered an issue with the deck wood; I had forgotten another with the bottom panels which CLC identified. All in good time, My Pretty. All in good time.

I need to cut a hole for the skeg, and I need to plane the sheer clamps for the deck (even though the deck isn’t going on for a while yet). I want to cut the skeg opening with the hull inverted. I’ve marked the outline for the skeg mounting block. The right saw will be here Saturday — why balk at $12 for the right tool now? I’ll sand the skeg block to a slight taper [good idea, but in the end I didn’t bother], snug it in a slightly undersized opening [or one that was just right], apply epoxy fillets inside the hull, cover the inside with cloth, then plane or sand the outside flush with the hull. A touch more epoxy and glass and that’s that. I am not 100% satisfied that the inside of the slot that holds the skeg will be properly sealed. Thinking.

See if it’s possible (and desirable) to add a quarter inch to the top of the forward bulkhead. I think it has come in slightly lower than planned. It might not matter, and then again it might. Could I epoxy a second profile piece to the back of the bulkhead and fill in the exposed gap with a fillet? Would the deck still fit? Would it fit better? Does it matter? What problems do I imagine that I think I might see? Stop it, and build a boat.