I notched the underside of the inner rail for a half lap joint before it was epoxied in. In retrospect, the notch might have been better on the top because more pressure is exerted on the thwart during exits (getting our butts out of the seat) than when picking up the #24 boat.

I glued up the half lap joint with thickened epoxy, no problems so far. The pegged brass screw is run clear through the joint, cut off and filed flat underneath, measure.

As far as a tenon joint, I thought it'd be pretty difficult to get the inner rails and thwarts all positioned at once.

Ian

: Ian, How is the thwarts attached to the side of the canoe... It
: looks like a tenon joint?