Almost good as new

This is the the repaired gouge the router made on the cabin front. Except for the filler color you would have to point it out to someone and it looks pretty good compared to the photo in the last post. All the topsides fiberglassing is now complete. A little bit of sanding has been done where the rubrails will be attached but the bulk of the sanding will be done much later after the bottom of the hull is fiberglassed and the boat is turned back upright. The woods always looks so nice after the epoxy is applied; it seems a shame to sand it to that boring gray color before painting. I now realize why kayak builders love their bright finishes. A Pocketship with a bright finished hull would probably look great but it would take more than the skills of this novice boat builder to keep the hull free of construction dings and scratches. I'm having enough trouble protecting the ribbon sliced tiama transom to finish in varnish. They say that doctors bury their mistakes; beginning boat builders hide their mistakes below the waterline or in watertight compartments.

I don't think I ever mentioned that after using the first 5 gallons of epoxy resin that I discovered I had used more than 3 gallons of hardener instead of the expected 2.5 gallons for a 2:1 ratio. Measuring the output of the pumps I found out the resin pump was pumping 10- 20% less that it should. I guess a little more hardener in the ratio is a better scenario than not enough. I had a spare resin pump but now I have had to order another gallon of hardener. It looks like I have about 3-4 total gallons of epoxy mixture left which by my calculations could be just enough to finish all the hull fiberglassing. If not I will have to buy epoxy other than MAS epoxy because it is not available locally and shipping just a gallon of MAS hardener from Noah's in Toronto was $40 plus the $139 cost of the hardener.

Speaking of costs I have now purchased all the sailing hardware and rigging except for the 5/8 inch sail track. Once I have tallied it all up I will include in a future post exactly how much my Pocketship has cost and the vendors I used.

The remaining photos in this post show the fiberglassed topsides. The cabin decking toe rails are in place and the first layer of the rubrails on the port side is glued in place. The rubrails proved to be a very reluctant bend on the the last 2 feet at the bow. You can see the large clamp I used to pull the rail to bow so that the temporary screws could be put in. I will find out in the the next day or so exactly how strong an epoxy bond really is when I very carefully and while crossing my fingers remove the clamp and screws. The sheerline of the first layer appears to be a true curve to me but it is difficult in the confines of a single garage to stand back and get a good broadsides view of the boat.