And Then There Was Boat. . .

Here you can see the first inner stem I had set in place.  These were two steam bent quarter inch think pieces of the pressure treated decking.   I then glued them together and let them sit for over a week.  I finally got them glued into place, and screwed to the outer stem, already in place.

Once the stems were in place, I decided to give the whole interior a coat of the latex 'Drylock'.  Mistake. You can see below how it seemed to make some of the strips of paper that had been varnished together sort of de-laminate.  I then glued and screwed in the keelson.  This was also laminated together from two quarter inch thick pieces, but the bottom piece I made about half an inch less wide than the top, and centered underneath it.  Once the whole thing was in, this gave me a short 'lip' to put the ribs under while I bent them in place and fastened them at the top with just a single screw into the outwhale.  Towards the top of this picture, under the temporary thwarts, you can see some scrap pieces being used as wedges to help the ribs stay pushed up against the paper hull until the glue dried.

Another coat of latex stuff and then a dry fit of the inwhales and the thwarts.  Looking back, I should've added more ribs.  Although it would have been more weight, they really do make the hull a lot more rigid and help it to stay in shape.  (Wait til you see how the hull looks after its adventure down a class II. . .)

 

Just a close up of the gunnels coming into the stem.  The stem and all of the excess paper were trimmed flush later.  There's a small block of wood that was screwed to the outwhales to keep them in place while they were drying still on the mold.  Now that the inwhales are screwed to the outwhales I guess it serves no purpose, but it is still in place.

The stainless steel nut, washer, and eyebolt (can't see the 'eye' here) were left over from a disassembled garden swing.

Another dry fit of the inwhales and thwarts.  I would eventually assemble them all together as one piece on the garage floor, and then staple in the fabric decks, just like upholstering a couch.  The fabric is from an old deck umbrella that succumbed to a sudden gust of wind. Once the fabric was stapled onto the inwhales, I glued and screwed the whole assembly in place to the outwhales.

I added some quarter inch floor boards, just glued down onto some of the ribs where I thought I'd be putting my weight most of the time.  Of course I just ripped them from the decking I had and painted them with the oil paint I had.  The breasthooks are just half inch pressure treated ply, and of course it was from scraps I had laying around.

I put almost any kind of filler I could find to seal the stems and the keel to the paper hull: liquid nails, 3M 5200, silicon flashing sealant.  All of them were tubes that had been open for a least a year, and the 5200 was more like 5 years old!

The 'nicer' looking thwarts and the swiveling kneeling thwart were made from some scraps of cherry floorboards.  After just a quick sanding I broke down and oiled them with some teak oil.  It does come out looking a lot nicer than the pressure treated pine does

.And here it is, ready to go!