I took a time out to straighten the boat out a bit. i had notices the offset stem, but later realized there was more wrong. I split the stem down the middle and cut off the transom. I took a square piece of ply and locked the major bulkheads 5 & 12 into proper alignment, then glued the stem back together and installed a freshly fabricated transom. That's # 3 for anybody counting :-)
Once back to where I though I already was, I thought I'd properly lubricate the mental machinery for framing out the cabin sides. i wanted to get this done before flip ply the boat to give more structural support. the cabin top is going to be my sawhorse for the bottom work.
Here's a few shots of how the framing came out.
Once the glue set for a couple of days, i went ahead and flipped the boat. i was able to do this by myself with no help. I figured if the bulkheads couldn't hold yup to me doing this with no help, i didn't make the connections strong enough and i'd rather find out now. Absolutely no problem though.
The boat is very stable and at a nice working height just sitting on the cabin top. I can see that I have some fairing and filling to do on the bottoms of the bulkheads to bring the flush to the bottom. I've considered just slathering in some epoxy fillets/fillers after i get the bottom on and flip it back, but i really want to be able to nail the bottom to the bulkheads as I install it. I'm getting awful good with my little block plane on this job. I took the time to sharpen her up proper, and it works just fantastic. might be my new favorite tool. If I would have known how fast and well it was going to work, i would have left a lot of things a lot more proud instead of trying to finesse the cuts and measurements so much. another thing learned.
I did some test fitting of one of the chine logs. It looks like all of the prestressing with the water bucket and sawhorses left enough memory that this isn't going to be a problem. I can tell right now I have to go buy more clamps though. I want to work down both sides together as i've heard that doing one side complete before moving over to the other is a good way to pull your boat out of whack.
I've got a busy weekend coming up, so it looks like I'm @ 1.5 weeks out for having the bottom on. I'm thinking I should get the glass on the chines and bottom and paint on the bottom as well, then I won't have to flip the boat anymore after setting it back upright. I'll probably roll it 90 degrees to glass each side, but a full 180 will no longer be required. It's going to be a lot heavier with that 1" of ply on the bottom.
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