Work has been slow the past few days.  My sinuses have been bothering me and I just not been able to work on it as much as I would like. But of course there is no deadline on getting it done either.

On the bow end of the boat I cut the stringer a little short (on purpose). If you leave it that way you end up with a ugly look at the bow, so I go back and glue on filler strips. These are pieces that were cut off the stringers to make the scarf joints.

I shape mine using a SHARP block plane and follow up with with a little sanding. Here you can see the it starting to take shape.

It takes me 2 -3 minutes to shave and sand the block. I do both sides, flip it over trim the top, a light sanding, stretch some t-shirt fabric over it check the shape and it’s done.

I installed the foot rest on the Gunwale stringer as usual and when I stood back and looked I could see there was a problem. Laying a straight edge across the deck confirmed that the foot rests were going to touch the skin. I should have checked that first but I didn’t and it bite me.

This boat has a more pronounced ‘V’ in the hull than my other designs. After moving them and doing some measuring (which I should have done first) I could see that only my toes would have reached. So I removed them and mounted on the chine stringer. Glad I caught that now.

With that done the frame is finished except for installing the floor boards. I have been painting them and I am waiting on the shipment of sinew to come in and replace the bad shipment.

I put the frame on the scales with the floors and it weights 22-23 lbs. The Baltic Birch plywood is heavier than the Douglas fir I have been using. What surprised me was the floors added almost 3 lbs of that. Even so this is still so much better than 50 lb. Tupperware boat.

Finished frame (almost) ready to be skinned.