Got out this morning and did a final solvent wipe to get all the dust and dirt that I could off, then broke out the paint.

Before

I sometimes get so tied up in building the boat that I forget why we want to go boating otherwise. Don't get me wrong, I get great enjoyment from getting out and putting something together. I get even greater joy when it works right the first time.

What a day!

Up early (at least for a holiday) and out to work.

Early morning light

The last week or so has been a hurry up and wait process.

Sanding, sanding and more sanding, spending, spending and more spending.

Started getting progress made again. I have pretty much all the cracks and holes filled now, and have been continuing to sand. And sand.

I ordered the xynole cloth today to skin the hull with for abrasion resistence and final water tight layer. I've got to order a boat load (pun intended) of epoxy to wet it out. I'm told the xynole uses much more epoxy to wet out than the fiberglass cloth, but it will wind up being the equivalent of 2-3 times an equal weight of fiberglass in strenght/abraision resistence.

You know, there is a LOT of a 28' hull to sand on. Just trying to go around the "edges" takes a while.

While I've been down for the count over the last week or two, I did manage to track down a source for replacement planer blades for my little planer, and my wife and son gave me a belated Father's Day gift of a new random orbit sander.

I finally got to put them both to good effect for a while. Got the keel/skeg nicely smoothed up, got most of the chines smoothed, and a bunch more hit and miss work.

In this last week, I think I've only made it out to the boat twice. Once to show my Dad my progress, and another just now to see if the hull is ok. I've been sick and on some drugs that even if I wanted to work, it wasn't going to happen.

Health is on the mend again, and I'm anxious to be back at it. Might even feel up to something right now, except guess what... it's raining! Well, we badly need the rain here in the drought stricken Atlanta area.

Well, that keel that had such a modest start a couple of weeks ago has grown up. I now have a full-fledged skeg at the rear. Twelve layers (I think it was) by the end, it adds up to a 9" depth from the hull bottom. This should give good tracking and good protection from any floating debris to the prop.

I got the stem laminated up and mounted to the bow!

This follows building all the skeg up and then extending the two-layer keel forward nearly all the way to the bow.

The last week or so has seemed to fly by. From a "how sore am I" standpoint, I got a lot done, but to look at the boat, well ...

I got fiberglass tape epoxyed on both chines from stem to stern. This seemed to go pretty well, although I have a few bubbles in one side that I will have to address. Seems to have bonded very nicely and is really on there. Makes me feel better about the strength of things when something really latches hold like that.