Beginner's Mistakes

I did the epoxy tack welds and made a lot of them probably a little too big. I guess it was a beginner boat builder's unconscious fear of the boat falling apart when I take out all the wire stitches. I have some ugly ones I will need to clean up before applying the fillets. The photo shows all the joints masked off to hopefully help create neater fillets than my tack welds. I had trouble reaching the very inside joints for the tack welds but I am now more confident about standing inside the hull to do the fillets as the boat seems to be held very well together with the tack welds. I can no longer hear any stitches creaking or groaning when I reach inside or stand on the keelson.

I plan to practice my first fillets in the compartments that will never see the light of day and then do what I hope will be my best ones in the cabin last.

I caught another mistake fortunately before doing the tack welds and fillets. For fun I put the forward deck in position and found out I had accidently stitched in bulkhead 2 about 3/4 of inch aft of where it should be and the deck did not reach the cleat on the bulkhead. Much easier removing some stitches rather than ripping epoxy apart.

I ordered the sails from CLC today hedging my bets on the value of the Canadian dollar. Originally, my wife was going to sew the sails using a kit from Sailrite but after viewing the construction videos decided our home sewing machine probably isn't large enough to handle the size of the sails. The sail kit from CLC also comes with the hardware shown below.

Mainsail and Jib - White Dacron

PocketShip main and jib built exactly to our specifications by a small-boat specialist sailmaker, in the highest-quality white Dacron available.  Mainsail has one set of reef points and cringles in the main, roped foot, luff, and head, and 5/8" stainless track cars.  Jib is fitted with a sturdy wire luff, ready for roller-furling.  Tell-tales are included on both main and jib.  Ready to bend on!  Sail, furthest right below, is white Dacron.