First Bulkheads in Place

The first two bulkheads are in place now. It got pretty cold (again), and I wasn't sure if the epoxy would kick. Put some heat on them for a couple hours, and fortunately the fillets firmed up. Before placing the bulkheads I cut notches on either side of the tunnel to allow for drainage.

Eyes on the Prize

Looking back on some old pictures, I realized that I haven't fished much in the past year (primarily due to the fact that this boat build has consumed quite a bit of free time). Really looking forward to the day it hits the water, and I can get back after them again. Soon enough.

Dad and I in Ocean Isle:

Another OIB redfish

Topsail Island Redfish

Cousin Eric hooked up in Buzzard's Bay

Flounder gigging in Carolina Beach (or as Joe would say, "Flounder Giggity-Giggity")

Sneads Ferry Redfish

Cape Fear River Striper with Joe Shaw and Justin Whitley.

Inside Glassed

On the last day of the 2010 year, the inside of the hull was glassed. Beau and a friend of his from ECU helped me out with it. It was a little stressful, and we exchanged some curse words and insults while we worked this time.

December 31st was one of the only moderately warm days we had in December (average temps in the day were in the low 40s, and it was getting down to the twenties at night), and so we really wanted to get it glassed on this warm day. However, I was low enough on epoxy to where we were all really wondering if there would be enough to finish the job. Really, the hardener was the real issue. The week before I pulled a fillet that didn't kick because of the low temperature, and because I used a medium curing epoxy. This time, to be certain, we only wanted to use fast cure. It was close, but we did have enough, and got it well saturated so that the peel ply wet out nicely. All's well that ends well I guess.

I also got most of the stringers and bulkheads cut out, and am glassing them now.

Cutting the Hull Sides

As was previously mentioned, the strakes looked really clean when I first put them down as bare foam (below)

 And they looked pretty good with glass on them too (below). But after I started griunding, I had to take them back to foam completely because of the voids.

So, after they were ground down, I reglassed with two layers of a lighter fiberglass that formed around them much more easily. I put down fillets of cabosil on either side as well in order to ensure there'd be no voids this time. I'm over grinding those things out!

There were some minor air pockets right at the chines in the aft section. Just to be sure I went ahead and ground those voids out, and also ground back a layer about two inches wide on either side of the chine in hopes that it won't cause me too much trouble come fairing time.

Once the boat was flipped Beau and I used a laser tool to line up the hull sides so that we could cut off the top couple inches to straighten everything out. Here's Beau taping off the transom. We left a 4 inch tab on the back so the outboard can sit higher on the transom.

I cut off the excess with a circular saw. It was a little scary taking a power saw to something that so much time went into.

Here she is after the hull sides were cut.