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Fillets in the ends of the boat.  I didn't have any milled fiberglass, so I made my own.  I took offcuts from fiberglassing the outside and cut thin slices off at a 45º angle.  Stir a bit and you have neat 1/8 inch fibers.  It's a source of constant amazement to me the way that epoxy takes on different qualities when you add different things.  With just the fiberglass, it reminded me of the "slime" I used to play with that came with one of the He-man figures I had growing up (dating myself!).  Added the fumed silica and it's not like any substance I've ever seen.  Fascinating...  Hard to get exactly where you want it if you don't have the right tool.  I used a ziploc bag to apply it (like icing) and a spreader made from the bottom of a cottage cheese container that I stapled to a short strip of wood (leftover hull material) Anyway the boat is symmetrical, so I've only got a pic of one end.

Yay! Fiberglass inside the boat, finally!  Still a lot of drips to chase down tonight, but I did a much better job avoiding bubbles than I did on the outside.  Practice makes.... um.. better.

And the other side...

This time fill the weave with a sloppy mixture of light weight filler, instead of straight resin. You'll save a bunch of time, trust me. I can see your repair areas in the end, where you had to splice those wayward strips. Putty will hide all of the sins and she'll look just fine. Keep up the good work.

Haven't sanded yet, but the filler mix is on.  Didn't add as much opaque fillers as I should have, so it's hard to tell, but the uneven spots are blended in now.  Really!

Anyways,  I thought I'd try a dry fit of the gunwales.  I still have to trim them a bit, and I plan to use a roundover bit in the router to make them nice and pretty, but here's one in place.  After I did this, I realized that I would be smart to get the seat stringers in first, so I'm glad I didn't do what I normally would and dive in with the epoxy.

Seats are giving me fits.  I had hoped that the station molds would help me locate my waterlines, at least the 12 inch one which is the baseline for my seat risers/stringers.  Unfortunately, I didn't take into consideration that they wouldn't fit after the fiberglass was in.  I still have the station outlines from the lofting, but those won't help much as the spot for the seats is not on a station and the bevel changes considerably in the areas where the seats are located. 

  I ended up using a story stick to pick up the distances from the sheer to the 12" waterline, then a batten to connect the dots.  My spirit level tells me that I did okay, but the lines look really weird and I want to find a way to double check it.  Theoretically, this line should be level, since the boat is leveled fore and aft and side to side.

  A bigger problem is install the seat stringers or seat risers.  Since my little cypress batten didn't want to lay flat along the waterline, I'm sure a 3/4" piece of oak won't either.  Need to make clamps, lots and lots of clamps...

  Tried the seat riser method.  Short pieces just long enough to support the thwart/seat.  I used a sticker (right word?), two battens spring clamped to a middle batten making one adjustable stick, to pick up the distance across the hull for the corners of the forward thwart.  Not 100% sure I got the seat location right, not sure both sides are even and not sure that my sticker did exactly what it was supposed to do.  Cut out one seat, didn't look right, didn't fit right, it's in the scrap bin now with a few choice words.

  Fortunately, I haven't done any permanent damage. Still, this is probably the most frustrating part of the build thus far.  I'm gonna have to sit in the moaning chair and stare at the boat over a beer for a while...

The joggle stick may be helpful (click to enlarge).



It's the perfect tool for this type of situation. If it was me, I'd use a laser level at the approximate seat height, then joggle stick to this line, the thickness of your thwart(s). This will give you the bevels.

Couldn't find an appropriate laser level within my price range (<$20), but I did find30 feet of some nice clear tubing for 5 bucks.  Got to practice using a water level for the first time.  It worked great!  I will try the joggle stick next building session, now that I have reliable seat riser marks. Thanks!

Ryobi sells a pretty nice, self leveling laser for about $0 bucks. Lowe's/Depot stuff sometimes on sale for $30.

Sorry for the late reply.  The whole family has been sick with a tenacious cold virus. 

Thanks Paul, I will check those out.  I may save a bit and get one of the more expensive ones that I can use for lining off a workshop (someday).

Anyways,  here's some progress on the peapod.  I got the scuppers cut in the inwales today. To make the scuppers, I clamped the inwales together face to face.  Then I marked my scupper spacing (5" on center), starting from the center of the inwales and working out.  I drilled holes at each mark using a 1" spade bit and  cut out the area where the scupper would be using a jigsaw.  A Surform and rasp (viewable in the pic)  made short work of truing up the slots.  I'll round off the rough edges (semi-bullnose) using sandpaper as I do not presently have a working router.  I'm referencing my cuts off the center of the boat and will trim and taper the ends to fit when I get my breasthooks back. 

For the breasthooks, I'm using a block of walnut that I had leftover from building a fireplace mantel.  Since my tablesaw is grossly underpowered (I use 7 1/4 inch circ saw blades on it!), I took the block over to a guy on Warehouse Rd. (see post above).  The block will be cut down to a large rectangle, ~1/2 the width of the final product, cut diagonally into two triangles, then resawn into 1 inch blanks.  I'll end up with four triangular pieces, or two pairs of bookmatched triangles.  Will post pics of this later, when I get my blanks back.

In the meantime, here's the inwale in process-