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Once you get into spray painting, it becomes obvious you need respiratory protection and this usually means a lot more than a particulate mask. Even in the old days, spraying lacquer and alkyds, you knew you needed more than a cartridge mask. After an hour in the "booth" you had a buzz and this is a pretty clear indication, you're sucking in stuff you'd probably not want in you. Portable respirators have changed dramatically in recent years. If you do more than a little painting, you'll need at least a half mask and personal breathing unit (grade D). I like the full mask setups, but it's a personal choice. These systems aren't exactly cheap, but good used ones can be found on Ebay at a fraction of the price of new. Possibly with some "consumable parts" replacements an essentially new system can be had, pretty cheaply. This is how I started. As your painting quality control and requirements go up, you'll have to make additional changes to your equipment (guns, filters, driers, compressors, etc.). Eventually you'll have a small professional setup and can spray automotive style finishes without runs, sags and perfect cured results. For a one time paint job, there's not a lot of worry about isocyanates, if rolled and tipped, but if you do this regularly, you will need the same protections as spraying. You'd think waterborne paints could solve this problem, but they're actually worse. They do use water, but also have some seriously bad for you water soluble chemicals in it, that still need to be kept out of you. In fact, most waterborne 2 and 3 pack systems only the base coat is waterborne, with the primer and clear still being solvent based. It's a complex subject and you do need to have a pretty substantial conversation with yourself, about the upgrade to spraying.

Red oak is a traditional boat building wood of some note, though has limitations. In traditional structures it was very commonly used in deadwood assemblies. In modern construction methods, if fully encapsulated can last very well.

Why are the babies so cute? While parents can be so ugly? 'cause they'd eat their young otherwise, that's why . . .

I prefer to use bugle headed decking screws, having given up on black phosphorus drywall screws decades ago. Drywall screws just break, usually when you'd rather they don't. Deck screws are much tougher. The bugle head will suck most materials down by themselves, though I have boxes full of 1 5/8" deck screws with a 1/4" thick 2" square plywood pad on them, so I can improve hold down and adjustment and not leave a big head divot. Square drive are nice, but not as common in the economy fastener market in the USA. You can get them, but you pay twice as much and for a temporary fastener, hard to justify. Lastly, a counter sunk (or bugle head) fastener offers more holding power than a button, pan or truss headed fastener. On the other hand, if you need some minor adjustment under the head a slightly over size hole will permit a pan style (button truss, etc.) to accept this movement, which is why I use the plywood pads under my bugles occasionally.

I have 4 dogs, the smallest is 70 pounds and they enjoy Possum or any other critter that might happen into the yard.

There's no such thing as a retired engineer Don, just like there's no such thing as an ex-marine. I agree with Ken, keep it simple and address the problem rather than cut the boat. To me this means a spacer or a remote mount.

I can and have tossed possums pretty darn far (they tend to squeal when they land), so how much distance do you really need?

Agreed, these sort of "old wive's tales" just kick my butt and make absolutely no chemical sense whatsoever. Many of the things in varnishes and polyurethane protective coatings, will not react nicely with chemically active epoxy. You can kill the full cure of the epoxy, but usually what happens is it (top coat) just doesn't stick well and peels off in sheets. I'm not a Sikkens product fan, though it does seem to stick well to raw wood and porous surfaces.

Where are you located?

No I make oops's too, though I have developed keen methods for hiding these occasional errors over the years. Several years ago I built a nice daysailor for a fellow out near Daytona. In route to his house, the mast, which was well wrapped and dogged down to the deck, moved somehow and ate a pretty good size divot, in the short combing surrounding the forward end of the cockpit. Naturally the customer wanted a replacement combing piece, which he agreed to install himself, but I insisted on taking back and return it in a week. I carefully cut part of the combing off, about a 1/2" down from it's top, then laminated a same thickness strip of mahogany back down in place of the damage, insuring a clean glue line and rounded over the top edges. Stained dark, it was nearly impossible to see this repair and the owner literally put his nose on the combing to see the seam. Yeah, we all screw up or at least learn the hard way . . . Welcome to life. It's not that we don't make oops's every so often, but how clever we can be dealing with them.

Sweat god, granite workbench countertops. Yeah man, that's living, but I'd feel pretty pissed the first time I plunged through a hunk of wood I was drilling and dulled the bit on the countertop or worse, was beating the crap out of a stubborn bearing or something and cracked it. I do have a Formica countertop I use in my epoxy mixing station. In fact. I selected the smoothest piece of white I could find, so cleanup is easier and I can use it as a base for laminates or casting stuff. For dead flat stuff, where I don't trust the Formica, I'll use a piece of glass (real tempered stuff) or plexi, which can be bent into developed shapes if desired. I have a few pieces of plexi (acrylic) of different thicknesses for this, a big piece of 1/4" and a few pieces of 1/8" and 1/16". The 1/16" stuff bends real well and is often used over a butt joint to insure it's nearly fair, when pulled free.

Speaking of beauties. This is my other half's niece and the new Miss World representative for the USA. She'll compete in China this fall, for the title against the rest of the world's offerings. Pictured with her mother, she's got some modeling under her belt, is just over 6' tall and has a 4.0 at Vanderbilt U. Not bad for a 19 year old.

I've found Bosch blades about the best of the most commonly available blades. They have an "Extra Clean" blade with zero tooth cant, which makes exceptionally smooth cuts.

Yeah, you don't need either of those saws to build this particular boat, though you might find more uses for the bandsaw than a scroll saw in the future. I have a fancy scroll saw that I haven't used in years. I have few band saws that I use frequently. The key with a bandsaw is blade tension, without tearing out the upper wheel bearing. Most benchtop saws just are too flimsily built to tolerate much tension, but with some well place reinforcement or a better bearing/tensioner setup, they can. My old Delta would flex too much with a bunch of tension on, so I welded a brace across the back of the saw's frame, which removed 1/2 of the flex when tensioned up. Lastly good blades are the only way to get a bandsaw to cut well and straight. Log onto McFeelys.com and look at good blades.

Given this boat is being built in the south Pacific, the ride might be lengthy to the Messabout . . .

Slightly snug fits is the goal, with gaps being okay except on brightly finished pieces. If it's too tight, yep, you can starve the joint, so take a rasp and knock it back with a few strokes. With epoxy, you just need contact between the two mating surfaces and the goo. If it's a molded area, subsequent layers will hide your sins, but a really tight joint may also pucker up a touch, which can be knocked down, prior to the next layer going down.

My shop looked like that once, just after I sealed her in and set 'er up.

Tough crowd, you think . . .

Welcome to the forum, John. Good to see you have her skinned up . . .

Plastic sheeting or tape I'd guess, to prevent the goo from sticking to things you'd rather it not, like clamps, blocking, etc.

Thanks . . .

Nope . . .

The original arrangement was stayed, but the current setup is fully rotating and free standing.

This is the arrangement I used on the ketch, before removing the cabin. The small, one speed trailer winch was mounted on the bulkhead, just aft of the partner beams. The tabernacle didn't go all the way through the deck, just stood on top. Some flexing was seen, but not to worry about. The new arrangement has the winch in the same location, except the tabernacle goes all the way down to the keel batten now, so it's much stronger.

The ventilation plate fin will not make you go faster, in fact the additional drag will shave a wee bit off the top end. What they do well is help the boat climb up on plane at lower speeds, hold a plane at lower speeds, better maneuverability and offer some anti-squat trim. I think I'll be on the mountain in a week or two . . .