1-9.

We were planning on making a trip to Panama City to look at trailers, but decided to postpone it for worse weather and use the nice warm days we're having now to do some epoxy work.  

This weekend we took off the inner and outer gunnels and the seat supports and gave them all a coating of liquid epoxy.  While the gunnels were off, we glued and screwed the spacer blocks.  Those were screwed from the outside of the boat, meaning we had to do them first before the outer gunnel went on.  The next step is to glue the outer gunnel on because it's screwed on from the inside (so the inner gunnel would be in the way), then lastly we can attach the inner gunnel.   

We also glued and screwed the seat supports (little 20x20mm) strips that run along the inside of the frames that the seats will sit on.  These aren't a perfect fit yet, so now we'll have to go back and sand them flush with the frames.  We also added some fillets (the brown epoxy below) to certain seams.  This one is inside a seat compartment - we want the edge where the stringer of wood is to be smooth when your hand is reached inside, and to help keep water from pooling behind that wood where it would be harder to get out.

A quarter knee.  My dad designed them and cut out the basic shape, then I went back yesterday and cut out the notch where it fits with the transom board and sanded them to fit inside the back corners.  Getting them to actually fit into the corners was tricky, and on this one you can see there are gaps around the notch, but that'll have to be filled with maple-dust epoxy.  The second one turned out to be a closer fit - I was more careful with the sander!  We're hoping to varnish these, along with the curly maple top transom doubler and the centerboard case seat/rowing seat.  

Daddy used a cutting wheel on the angle grinder to cut a piece of pipe for the centerboard to pivot on.  After he cut it, it was still a little too long, so he had to go back and grind it down more, and eventually it fit perfectly.  A bolt goes inside the pipe and sticks out either side of the centerboard case to hold the pipe in place and keep water from leaking inside the boat.  This also allows the centerboard to be removable for repairs, etc.

We also drilled extra big holes in the transom and filled them with epoxy for the rudder gudgeons (or pintels, one or the other).  Now we can go back and re-drill through the epoxy to actually attach them - that way there's no water to wood contact.  (Just like most of the other holes we've been drilling - see the centerboard where the pipe is going through.)

We decided on our sail color and type - it's being made by Dabbler Sails up in Virginia.  Earlier I said it was going to be Egyptian cotton, but I was wrong - it's Egyptian dacron.  The sailmaker sent us several samples and we picked the Bainbridge type (UK) because it was softer and more pliable.  The pennant is going to be a nice sea blue color.
With that in mind we have also picked out boat colors (I think)!  We talked with Brian to get artistic input, and came out with a complex paint scheme that my dad and I narrowed down to reduce colors and detailed work.  Sounds like it'll be a dark-ish beige hull with blue trim to complement the pennant color on the gunnels (and possibly below the gunnels to a little wood strip line), and creamy off-white interior and foredeck.  I would like to also paint the inside of the transom the darker hull color to off-set with the light curly maple, but we'll see what resistance my dad puts up to that.
There are also some names floating around: Au-delà (beyond), L'étoile de mer (starfish), Swan (for the curly maple from Trumpeter swan country), Cygne
Input anyone?! Suggestions?!