The topsides are cut out, and a surprise dividend received.

Sunday 1-24: Two days off: one to help a friend put down a new pine kitchen floor, and one because I was feeling good for nothing. Today I rough cut the topside panels. Since they are 14 1/2 feet long and the plywood is 8' long, the first thing was to lay two sheets end to end and tack them in place to a scrap piece underneath. Then I used the pattern I'd made to trace the shape of the starboard topside, turned the pattern over, and traced the port side. Then using a circular saw I rough cut the sides. I marked which side and which end was which, then pulled the tacks and had four half pieces.

There are two ways to join two plywood pieces to make a panel longer than 8'. The two pieces can be scarphed by cutting a 4" taper in each piece and gluing them together. That makes a smooth panel, but the scarph has to be cut and glued just exactly right. Forget it. The other way is to butt the two pieces and join them with a third piece overlapping them both. That's the method I chose. I know from the dory built years ago that a 4 1/2" wide butt strap on 1/4" plywood will allow the side to bend in a fair curve. I took the rough-cut pieces inside the house and laid them flat on the floor. I turned them over so the butt went on the inside (I was so worried I would butt them on the wrong side that I had marked each half piece three different times which side the butt goes on.) I realigned the pieces with their mates, nailed them again to a scrap underneath, and epoxied a butt strap on each side panel. And I did it on the correct side, too. After the epoxy set up, I laid the pattern on the sides to check that after gluing they were still lined up right.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will cut the assembled topside panels to the final shape, plus an allowance for bevels and 1/8" for final trim. I did not cut them to exact shape at the outset oday because of the possibility they might have been misaligned in the gluing-up process. It turned out they were aligned just right, but I was spared that worry. And also tomorrow sI'll rip two 16' fir 1x6 boards into longitudinal pieces for the chine logs and sheer clamps. I'll have to cut out notches in the molds for the chines and fasten them as soon as the topside panels go on. The sheer clamps pieces will go on after the bottom goes on and the boat's shell is pulled off the molds.

A good day. Nice weather, the job didn't fight me, and I didn't ruin any wood. And I even remembered to place the butts so they fall between two molds.

And here's today's special dividend: My neighbor and a friend of his jointly own a 13" DeWalt thickness planer which has been gathering dust unused in a garage. My neighbor offered me the use and posession of it if I had room in my shop, and you can bet I'll make room. He showed up with it this afternoon, and it is now occupying my work bench until I can build a stand with wheels for it. The thickness planer will be very useful: standard 3/4" and 1 1/2" dimensional lumber can't be made to serve for all the parts on the boat. One thing I know I'll need it for is smoothing up the four sides of the mast timber before marking the taper to cut into it.