Last Thwart In, Starting on Exterior

Yesterday I permanently installed what I call 'thwart 3", to the aft of the centerboard trunk. I epoxied and screwed it in place, and although that thwart is hard to get in place past the frame against which it butts, the epoxy made it a little slippery, and the fit went smoothly.  I screwed it down to the risers, and added screws through the frames and through the sides. That thwart, which is just about midship, provides almost all the lateral support for the boat's sides, holding it in its shape. All those screws will help make it a strong assembly, and I filled all gaps with epoxy to make it stronger yet.

The two thwarts sagged just a little when I put my weight on them, so I made wood blocks to screw under the thwarts and also screw into the ends of the centerboard trunk. I epoxied and screwed them into place, and now the thwarts are solidly rigid.

The only remaining installation inside the boat is the stern sheets (the seat at the stern), which doesn't support anything except the sailor, so the boat is now structurally complete. Rather than do the finish work inside, I decided to turn the boat over and finish the sides and bottom. Preparing to turn it over was a good occasion to clean up the work site, pulling out all the scrap pieces of wood which have accumulated under the boat and sweeping up a lot of sawdust and planer shavings. Also before turning her over, I trimmed the outer stem and the sternpost to their final heights. Here the boat is ready to turn over:

I turned her over with the help of Mrs. Strongback, whose dedicated work at the gym qualifies her for that name, though she'd deny it.

I braced the boat up high enough to work on, and sanded the entire exterior hull in preparation for filling, sanding, fairing and sanding before covering the exterior in fabric and epoxy. Here, she's ready for that next step, which I plan to tackle tomorrow:

After turning the boat over, I weighed it by weighing myself holding up each end. It's 184 pounds now. The centerboard will add 30 pounds, the rudder nd tiller probably a little less, and the rig probably 40 pounds. So around 300 pounds is what I'll end up with.

I 8-sided the little club spar, then sanded it round, or rather roundish, and notched the ends. It is ready to varnish, unless I decided to sand it more first.  Finally today, I ran the sprit timber through the thickness planer repeatedly to get it to a smooth, square 1 3/4" thickness. tapering and rounding it will be a significant job, more than the club, but less than the mast.