My swimming pool tests showed me a couple important items to take care of. First, the easy one… there were some areas along the transom that were not completely watertight, so a bit of water was seeping in. I did some caulking, and I suspect the issue is taken care of.

More importantly, I think if I want her to perform like a boat and not like a barge, the driver is going to have to drop a few pounds. Not as easy as caulking! But we will see if we can get it done…

The next steps in assembly are to install the cowl and the decks. This is a little tricky, as these parts are not cut to a pattern, but rather are cut to fit the individual boat. Not too difficult, really, just cut everything a little too big then do lots of trimming and sanding. Here are some shots of the cowl being installed, using a combination of clamps (where possible) and my trusty dumbbells (where clamps will not reach).

Now it’s time to do the decks. This was a little more challenging, for a couple reasons. First, the decks are large pieces, and a screw-up requires a trip to the lumber store, and re-scarffing some ten foot pieces. So I was a little nervous. Second, there is really no place to clamp the assembly while gluing. After lots of trimming and sanding, I was able to attach the decks to the hull with a handful of screws. I then removed the screws, took off the decks,  applied epoxy  to the frames and battens, put the decks back on, put the screws back in, then drove in nails every few inches. All the while, hustling to get done before the epoxy cured!

After all that, it actually came out pretty well, as you can see from the pics…

Front view, with decks

Side view, with deck

Now, if you look closely, you can see that the decks are overhanging a bit. My thinking was, better too big than too little! The price to pay for this conservative approach was a few hours of planing and sanding, to bring everything into alignment with the tunnel side panels. Got that out of the way, now she is looking almost complete! A little trim, a little paint, and a motor, and she will be ready to launch if there is any water in the lakes this spring!