Yikes! Did I ever blow it big time!!! In fact, I made a totally and unforgiveably sexist assumption and do apologize. I'm ashamed to have done that. Please forgive me.

: LOL, I was looking at those smears and thinking, "I gotta sand or shave
: those off or else everybody will see what a messy job I did!" I did
: plane off the thicker areas but left the "stain" looking ones.

Good on ya! I5t's get old chasing the scrapes. I like a image that Ron Pruden has of the underside of this yak scraped and gouged from launching from ice.

: I am building a Merganser 16 from kit. Started on Oct. 14 or 15 and right now
: have the hull stitched. (I thought beveling was laborious; it pales next
: to carefully twisting wires, twisting wires, twisting wires...) Looks good
: to the eye and passed the "twist test" but this morning I'll
: check it more critically, then wire on the deck panels. But I gotta build
: some cradles for the deck, too -- I figured out if I make cradles and glue
: them to some flat pieces of wood sitting on the floor, I can work on the
: hull and deck in parallel, though I will have to crouch underneath the
: sawhorses (which are holding the hull) to work on the deck! It's a narrow
: room but I think this'll work.

Cool! What a great idea. We're goin to build the deck today and ran out of room, so it's a carefully checked part of the garage floor.

: Your posting of "Day __" progress is brave! I guess it provides
: some incentive to keep moving on it, huh? Public audience.

Well, I have to make it every two days now. We have a displaced family in this house till they get resettled. They lost their house in the recent fires here in San Diego. We stop by to bring food and this morning teddy bears for the kids. I'm staying on a friends boat and Rikki at the Dana Point home. So...it'll have to become when I can get to this computer.

: Actually, it's "ma'am." My boyfriend, oops he's my husband now,
: looked at the hull and said, "Your beveling worked great." Now
: I'm afraid he'll want me to build him a boat, too ;-)

You have no idea how ashamed I am for making that assumption. You have my permission to hit me over the head for that. Please do accept my sincerest apologies. My only defense is to point out that I'm a aging idiot.