I cut, shaped, fit and glued the decks this past weekend and sanded them last night and they look great. Then I realized it was time to start drilling holes in my beautiful gunnels to hang the seats, yoke, etc. Now I know a little better what you all have been feeling when it comes time to cut those hatches in your decks! Must be painful.

So I started with an easy one - a handle thwart. Just straight through the gunnel and the handle. No long extension piece to deal with. It went fine but I realized I don't really know how carriage bolts work. How do you seat that little square neck at the top? Do you knock it in with a hammer or do you tighten the nut and draw it down into the wood? I sure don't want to split or crack anything.

I can also see that it will be difficult getting the longer bolts through all the requisite parts - gunnel, 4 to 5" spacer, seat. It's pretty difficult to drill 3 different holes all at the same angle to thread one long bolt. Is is ok to enlarge the hole to the next size drill bit or should that be avoided if at all possible to avoid introducing wobble into the setup?

And finally, I'm thinking I should varnish before I put all this stuff on, although all those parts are going to have to be varnished as well. Does that seem to be the way to do it? Not sure if I should varnish before or after putting on the brass stems either. Guess it wouldn't matter if I got some varnish on the stems.

Thanks for any parts you can help me with. There should be final photos before Christmas!!!!

Patsy