State of the Dinghy

My fellow boat enthusiasts: tonight I can report that the state of the dinghy is good. With Kathys help, the boat was flipped back over. The stitches holding the bulkheads in place were removed. Then the bulkheads were removed. Eventually. Despite my best efforts and care to wipe up drips of epoxy that worked their way through the lapstrake joints, one drip managed to wick its way through right at the location of the forward bulkhead. This one required a bit of "persuasion" to remove even after the stitches were snipped. This left a small chip that snapped out of the top layer of the plywood of one of the strakes. It can be epoxied back in place, and will be hidden in the forward buoyancy air chamber, so not too much damage was done, I think. The rest of my time was spent test fitting and planning out my next step. The glassing of the interior must be done in one continuous job that includes laying a fillet along the bottom joint, then laying the layer of glass as before. This is a long enough job for me to keep until the weekend when I have enough time to not rush it. For the rest of this week, there are little jobs of assembling various parts. For instance, I will epoxy the daggerboard trunk together, handles on the daggerboard, mainsail boom, etc. Over on the CLC Builders Forum, it was suggested that I glass the interior of the daggerboard trunk. This will be a wood surface in contact with water whenever the boat is in the water, yet once assembled it will be inaccessible. I think its an excellent idea to make it as durable as possible, so I will go ahead and glass the trunk interior. All the parts are laid out and waiting for assembly tomorrow. Total hours 41.75.

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