Side Planking Complete, Bottom Cut

I have epoxied and screwed both side panels into place. I then sanded down any exposed screws and covered them with a mahogany filler, which was also sanded down after it had hardened. I had a little extra space at the bow where the plywood meets the stem but I was able to fill that with the mahogany filler also. I then leveled the plywood with the frames and made the transition joint for the bottom plywood to fit.  The transition joint is the point where the overlapping plywood turns into a butt-joint, as you move forward. I made mine about 7.5" inches from frame #2. As always, there are more pictures in the Full Album on the right of the screen. 

The first picture shows the contrast between the sanded down filler (left) and the filler that still needs to be sanded (right). It also shows the filler I used in the small space between plywood pieces at the stem. The second picture shows the filler sanded smooth and the bottom planking pieces cut out. The two near the transom are ready to be screwed and epoxied but the front two need to be trimmed still.

Side Plywood Section Screwed and Epoxied

It was warm enough to finally put the plywood on but I ended up running into a different problem. As you can see in the first picture, the nails that I had were about 1/4" too big. I found this out about halfway through the day so I posted a question on the Glen-L forum about using a different length. It was also recommend that I could use screws, and since I already had to get new nails I figured I mine as well get screws. I ended up getting #8 3/4" Bronze screws which worked out pretty well. I pre-drilled and counter-sank all the holes and because of this I didn't have any screws break on me when I put the plywood on. The second picture shows the bottom panel installed. Next weekend the other panel goes on and hopefully the bottom planks too. I'll have more pictures up in my "Full Squirt Album" later this week.

Trimmed and Epoxied side Panels

Over the weekend I was able to trim the side panels for the plywood on the sides. I was working by myself and getting the longer piece of plywood on and off of the frame was quite a challenge until I was able to get my hands on a drill. Most builder just use a few screws for placement and are able to take the plywood on and off a lot easier, which eventually I was able to do. I also epoxied the butt-joint which was good because it's not suppose to be above 65 F for a while and the epoxy needs to set at about 75 F. With that said, I'm not sure what I will be doing next weekend if I'm not able to epoxy the panels to the frame. Anyways, here are a few pictures of the weekend progress.

I used some 20 pound weights to hold down the square piece of wood used to join the butt-joints.

Dry Fitting Plywood

Today I dry fitted the plywood and was pleased with the results. Taking my time fairing paid off as everything went together pretty well. The only trouble I had was making the bend around the transom. I really had to shove it into place to make it bend around the curve of the transom. I went to the Glen-L forum and through past posts found that working your way toward the bend with slow progression is a good way to do it. I gave it a shot and it seemed to work pretty well. I did have to do a little bit more fairing on the transom curve but that didn't take long. I wont be working on the boat for about 4 or 5 days so I put all the plywood wood on with clamps, not screws yet, and left it so the wood can get use to the bend. Next weekend I plan on screwing everything into place and fiberglassing the butt-joints where the plywood meets.The first picture shows the gap I had between the plywood and the sheer. The second shows the plywood clamp fitted.

Finally Back

First day back working on the Squirt and couldn't be more excited. I took about an hour just going over my work from last summer and trying to get an idea of what all needs to be done. To my surprise, my fairing from summer was better than I had thought and looks like there is only some around the stem and breast-hook area that needs to be done. My main focus today was on the sheer to chine and chine to stem section for fairing as well as trying to figure out where I want to place the plywood on the chine. There seems to be about a full days worth of work left on fairing touch ups before I start to plank. Before I do any of this though I still need to epoxy the new batten I have attached after my last one broke.

Above shows me taking a piece of plywood that will be used for the side/transom and seeing how it fits between the chine and sheer. As a side note, I shortened the longest battens by about 2'' to decrease the chance of having another one break.