Congrats on the (near) completion of the first boat. May I suggest that the lumps on the Maytag remain as a testament to your boatbuilding prowess. They'll also be good memory trigger for when you are talking about the construction: "Oh yes, I got this lump of epoxy when I was filleting the hull, and the box of Tide fell of the shelf, hit my toe, and my cup of thickened epoxy went flying." (Ya know, I think I spend too much time on this board. Now I'm making-up scenarios to fit other people's experiences. Better leave now.)

Ross

> Today I put the last fillet on the hip braces and my Chesapeake 17 kit is
> built. It looks better than I ever thought it would, and that’s before
> painting and varnishing. In a few weeks, when the warm weather returns to
> this part of the world, it will be passed through the basement window,
> onto the neighbours shed roof and manoeuvred round to the front porch.
> There I will sand, paint and varnish it, and paddle it as soon as the
> water is soft. Can’t wait to see how it performs. This was my millennium
> project (started at Christmas) and also my recognition of officially
> becoming a senior citizen It got finished some months before the second
> item so I guess I will have to make another boat for that significant
> event. I’ll try a stripper next. I found that the letters and
> encouragement in this newsgroup helped enormously, both to make up my mind
> to build and with ideas during the process. My God, the laundry room looks
> tidy now with just the boat sitting on its sawhorses and no working
> litter. If I can just get the epoxy lumps off the Maytag, it will look
> almost presentable.