: Thanks, Jim has done most of the work. A lot of steps take 2 people. It’s a
: bigger project than we were originally expecting. Isn’t that always the
: case?

Yeah, mine took much longer than I thought, too. Part of it was that I lashed all the keel/chine/rib joints individually. The fir chines were quite stiff and I was concerned that they would move around if I used a running lashing. The skinning/coating process also took much too long. With canvas and dope, I could have done it over the cours of two days. With polyester and urethane, it took six.

: The foot brace placement is looking pretty good. We can always put in another
: board to place Jim's feet against.

Oops! I meant "knee brace", not "foot brace". I installed the foot brace per the instructions with no problem.

: I think a 1X4 would give a more realistic entry angle.

Agreed.

: We pushed the stringers out maybe an extra half inch. We are trying to buy
: some more initial stability.

My hull is relatively flat in the center, which I thought would result in good initial stability. It's still pretty low and I suspect that I sacrificed a good deal of secondary stability.

: I’ll take a photo of the chine stringer ends today and post them next week.
: Jim and I kicked around what to do with them for quite some time. We’re
: open to opinions on our final decision. You’ll just have to wait and see.

I ended up joining the stringers behind the stem and stern plates, as it gave me the best fit that way. I would imagine that this waries from boat to boat.

: I have lots of boat building wood sitting around. We bought some wood for the
: project but mostly assessed what length/width/characteristics we needed
: and found a piece of wood to suite.

: I'll post wood usage later. I'm including a photo that shows the variety of
: woods.

: The ribs are White Oak. Morris called for 1/4" X 1.5" ribs. Our
: first attempt was Port Orford Cedar. WARNING Port Orford
: Cedar is not usable rib material. We found out the hard way. We were
: recommended the oak by a local builder. The oak is not 1.5" wide.
: This is where my friend Mr epoxy came into play. Once all the ribs were in
: place. Jim dowelled each rib. The next day I poured epoxy into the
: oversized holes an hour later I did a second pour as the epoxy had worked
: its way into all the cracks and crevices. Traditional? No, but both Jim
: and I like the results.

I wondered about the necessity of 1.5" wide ribs. I guess if you're using AYC, it may be necessary, but I used 5/4 ash (1 1/16" actual width) which should be plenty strong. It also bent easily. I've read that white oak is even better in that regard.

Did you run into any problems with rib placement? I found the directions in the book to be a bit vague. I ended up with a rib under my heels and another under my butt, both of which are undesireable. I also ended up not using one set of mortices I cut in the stern (no big deal, just wasted time and effort). Next time, I'll be much more critical than just starting in the center and spacing them 8" apart.

: I'm looking at a 12 oz sample that Dyson sent me. It has a flexible weave,
: which should hopefully help.

Is this polyester or nylon? The 13 oz. poly is pretty stiff stuff, with a very tight weave. He sent me a swatch of the 26 ounce nylon he uses on his baidarkas. It looks damn near bulletproof, but is much softer than the polyester. Next time, I think I'll use ~12 oz. nylon.