Hi All

I got some more progress pics of the Walrus, Double-Open 18 1/2'er that I'm working on. Just finished skinning the hull day before yesturday and am now finishing the deck stringers. All that remains to finish are the floors, cockpit rim, deck skin, seats and paint. Getting there, slowly, but surely.

Anyone building or planning to build a skin on frame boat would do well to invest in a pair of canvas stretching pliers. Absolutely NO effort in pulling the canvas tight as a drum. ( photo below )

Cutting the skin to do the stems was a bit nerve wracking at first, but went very smoothly and the whole operation took around 1 hour.

The deck stringers were next and I did the fore-deck last night and the aft-deck this evening. All are in place and glued and only need some touch up sanding to round corners and smooth out joints. Also have to pull the screws in the center stringer and replace with dowels before sanding. That would be tomorrow's job.

Next are the floors, which I need to do before I skin the deck, and also the cockpit rim, which the canvas will be attached to. Followed by the finish rim. For those I picked up some Italian, Poplar 1/8" Bending Plywood and will cut into strips and start wrapping around a form. I'll laminate 4 layers of the plywood to build the inner cockpit ring.

Now for some Shut-Eye.

Rehd