We started out the morning on the lofting table, expanding the transom and bow post and teasing out the elusive bevel cuts.

We broke into my hoard of old Port Orford cedar planks to mill out the bow post. I still have a couple long, tight, clear 2x8s from some older trees that I acquired with the purchase of the Betty Boop some years back. Especially resinous stuff–the shop smells mighty sweet.

Janek and Zasha spent a while truing up the framework a bit more, and we affixed the transom and bow post. Then we scarf-cut the chines and threw them in the steam bender for an hour or so. Meanwhile, with the majority of lofting done and transferred into the reality of a boat, we disassembled the lofting table, stashed it back under the house, and relegated the lofting diagram to the meat locker (the cold back room) for future reference in creating the decking. By that time the chines were cooked enough to wrangle onto the frames.

With the north bay free of the lofting table, we pulled out three sheets of plywood to scarf together for one side of the boat. My tried and true circular saw scarfing gizmo has decided it no longer cares to cut straight scarfs, so I free-handed the bevels with my trusty Harbor Freight power planer. Kinda scary, but it works pretty good, actually. Then we laid up the side panel on the floor and wedged them together into what we hope will be flawless scarf joints. Flawless. Well, pretty good, anyhow.

And by then enough time had passed that we could glue up the scarf joints on the bent chines.

With wet epoxy everywhere it was time to quit and hunker down for tonight’s snowstorm. Sounds more like sleet on the tin roof at the moment. Houses are such wonderful things.