Got it. In reading thru the instructions; you were tracing an outline and rough cutting it to shape, when I went back and looked at the pdf, its easier to see that you left the back of the block its original height. I was planning on doing it like you illustrate here. I can be a pretty literal person, luckily my Pennsylvania Dutch side is kept in check by common sense! PA Dutch ie: "throw me the baby out the window a pillow to sit on....."

What I'm illustrating here and in the instructions is supposed to be the same thing! lol I'm doing it "by the book" as they say. Just hard to explain sometimes...thus the reason for doing these build threads too. If you have ANY questions feel free to post! This is why I'm doing it! Starting the sheating now... will have more pics soon.

ps. I will update the pdf later with some of these new pics (if I think it will be better) to try and illustrate the steps better.

First piece of sheeting installed. This piece lines up at the top edge of the sponson and also at the bevelled trailing end of the sponson. Once glued, trim foam with sharp knife folling edges of wood as a guide. Finish by block sanding to get nice blend in with the wood edges.

Back at it today... installing more sheeting on sponsons... now doing the cutout at the back of the sponsons and the chines. Best to do the cutout (2 pieces) first and then block sand all flush before doing the chine piece. Pieces to use for the cutout are the 4-1/4 x 3-3/8" and the 1 x 3-3/8" pieces.


A few tips... I just discovered these neat little glue spreaders from LeeValley not too long ago... they will save you a LOT of cut-off acid brushes and in most cases work MUCH better and they have no bristles to come loose in the epoxy! Glue cleans right off of them.. I've been using the same one now for several builds!

Here is a link: www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page...cat=1,110,42967

Also, I just found something that works really well for holding sheeting in place around curved shapes. Until now I was using rubber bands and/or tape... I had this roll of cling wrap (used for packaging) on the table as I was building and decided what the heck, let's try this.... works GREAT!!! (I buy this stuff at the local Dollarama stores)

Chines and bottoms done... The cling wrap is working incredibly well... all seams are airtight, no voids at all...wish I had discovered this sooner!!!

Back of sponsons....

Back of sponsons sheeted and sanded...



Sheeting tops... wrapped and weighed down to keep flat.




All sheeted and sanded... At this point you can leave as is, or install hardwood nosepieces...choice is yours. I feel nosepieces are stronger. Just personal preference.

Doing the sponson tips with oak blocks. I used one of the blocks supplied in the kit and cut in in half lengthwise. Also made some small shallow holes in them and in the sponsons at the tips (in the foam and 1/4" ply) to try and give the epoxy something better to adhere to that smooth sanded surfaces.


Marking the sponsons for cutting...I cut on a bandsaw to avoid fraying of the wood and sand flat on 9" disc sander to make a nice flat tip for the blocks of oak to.

Putting the sponson tubes in. I machine some grooves in the tubes that will line up with the 1/4" plys inside the sponsons. Then cross-drill a few holes between the grooves. Once the tubes are in, I pour glue down the tubes and coat push in hardwood dowels that will force glue out of the tip of the tubes and also out of the cross-drilled holes, filling in voids if any. What will be the exposed end of the dowels, is coated with epoxy prior to pushing them into the tubes.

That is a great write-up, Marc. And a great boat. The pics are saying more than 1000 words and shows how much work is into such a built. Hats off. Can't wait to get mine.

BTW: What are these yellow "pyramids"?


They are very useful but never have seen something liek that before.