Spindrift, The Build - Part 2
25 March to 1 April - Gunwales
Thanks to fellow boat builder Louie, I was able to figure out how to cut straight strips using an angled jig saw from a solid piece of plank. After two not so straight trial cuts, I was finally able to rip two pieces of 12 foot sticks that would be used for gunwales. the lower angled corners were rounded off with a sander to make a nice 1/8" radius, I wanted to do this now before they were attached as it might be difficult to do once they’re on the boat.
We first installed the knees and and breasthook as this is where the gunwales will be anchored to. dry fitting the gunwales was the next step, it actually wasn’t as hard as we originally thought, the pieces were fairly bendable and required little effort to coax into position. after screwing them in place, we let them set for a couple of days.
Gluing them to the boat was fairly quick process. since we didn’t have enough clamps, brass screws were used to hold them in place.
here’s a pic of the bow where the screws were driven into the gunwale and into the breasthook. screws that held the rest of the gunwale in place were screwed from inside. Notice the re-enforcing block at the end of the butterfly joint.
I’m actually thinking of putting in an inner gunwale to give the hull extra stiffness and cover the screw holes for the outer gunwale. The inner gunwale will also make sitting on the sheer more comfortable when hiking out while sailing. 
There were around six inches of extra gunwale material sticking out the stern, these were perfect for propping up the rear of the boat and minimizing the force on the hull bottom while on the saw horses.
3 April - Tack welding the inside
Using laminating epoxy and micromix borrowed from Louie, I made some putty to tack weld the inside of the hull. Micromix is 
pretty light stuff, it flies up into the air with a very light breeze. the putty was very light and easy to work and held it’s shape well. It’s also easier to sand that Pioneer marine epoxy when dry. Tack welding is just placing putty between the stitches, it is important to have your tack welds lower than your final fillet. While I was doing this, Andrew also drew and cut out the pieces to be used for the center board.
Total number of Man hours to get to this point, around 54.
Now this part has nothing to do with sailing or boat building but might be just as interesting :). BBC Radio Scotland interviewed me last week for one of their daily programs, the topic was on Scottish culture abroad. The program was aired last Tuesday and will be available for listeners on the BBC website until 11 April, after which it will be replaced with next week’s program. Click here to listen, the best bits 
come in at around 17 minutes into the clip.
