While waiting for the internal glasswork to cure, I measured and marked the position of the front deck beam and sanded its top surface flat. I cut it to length and then trimmed the bevels on both ends (twice, alas, so it now fits about one inch forward of its designed station). There will be plenty of leftover beam to rescue the radius at the top of the forward bulkhead which I assaulted with a chisel many days ago. I have neither screwed the deck beam into place nor glued the extra material to the bulkhead. That will wait until the sheer clamps are planed to the deck contour and will give me a chance to adjust the deck support at the bulkhead at will.

With an 80-grit pad on the orbital. sander, I went all the way around the hull sanding the gunwales so that the outer glass and the sheer clamps are smooth and level, the better to have the same starting conditions all around before starting to plane to contour. The glass and epoxy is hell on the sanding pad. By the time I got to the always-will-be-exposed sheer clamps in the office intending to round them over, there was very little cutting left in the sander. There’s no hurry on that chore, either.

I also opted to seal the bulkheads while waiting for the skeg socket to cure. I used some slightly thickened epoxy to glue two small plywood patches to the top corners of the aft bulkhead first and clamped them with PVC clamps. I took that opportunity to experiment with MAS “cell-o-fill” filler. The resulting epoxy is a very different substance from the wood flour thickened “peanut butter.” When I added a substantial pile of c-o-f, the epoxy became elastic (like yeasty dough) and comparatively easy to control. I used some to seal the small gaps around the forward bulkhead. Thus experienced, I tackled the larger gap between the aft bulkhead and the bottom panels. It may take a two-stage fillet to close that one: a worthy effort tonight, a finishing pass tomorrow. I made the epoxy as thick as I dared, but the too-massive fillet slumps and wants to drain away from the bottom of the bulkhead. I raised the bow to encourage the blob to stay where I want it. I’m counting on doing a second fillet tomorrow morning.

Around midnight, I found the World’s Most Excessive Fillet still barely plastic. It had the viscosity of very cold Play-Doh (you remember Play-Doh, right? “Fun to play with, not to eat”? If not, I remind you this is a blog about an old man taking up rowing). I could shove the elastic epoxy — very slowly — back where I wanted it. So I spent 15 or 20 minutes doing just that, using fingers and stir-sticks to round up the thickened epoxy and pack it in where I had expected to need another fillet tomorrow. I smoothed everything down and cleaned up residue with a gloved finger dipped in alcohol. I think it’s a perfectly nice fillet (for me), and once it cures, I don’t expect this seal to need any more attention. [Lo, it is so: that’s a solid and well-sealed joint there.]