mattp

How about thickness planer. Couldn't find the right word...

I left a bit more width to plane when I was at that step. I started with my cheapo hand power planer to get close and then spent a LOT of time with my cheapo Stanley bench plane. If I was smart, I would have found someone with a good depth planer and had a good flat blank in about 5 minutes.

That is a different kind of bushwacking altogether.

Thanks for the advice, guys, especially the "don't fret..." bit. Unfortunately I have more time for fretting (driving to work, daydreaming in meetings, etc.) than actually doing.

I received the fiberglass this week and am trying to wrap my head around glassing the cb and rudder. I can visualize the cb with its straight lines but with that curvy rudder, I am not sure how to keep the cloth from wrinkling around the edge. My only idea is to start with a narrow strip around the perimeter (except the square trailing edge), followed by a flat sheet cut to shape on either side with small overlap and then maybe another edge strip for durability. Any thoughts?

Looks good! Have you flipped the hull to tape the outside yet or are you saving that for later? I am trying to figure out the best sequence for that. Right now I am leaning towards waiting until the cb trunk is in so that we can completely finish the bottom and avoid another flipping.

Last night, we finished taping the inside of the bow compartment. Temps were dropping through the 40's F and were expected to be in the 30's overnight, so we preheated the compartment with work lights and kept the epoxy in my warm car. When we were done, we left the work lights on and covered up the compartment with scraps and polyethylene. Kind of had a jack-o-lantern look with the light shining through the translucent epoxy filler.

Today, we cut out the ties, sanded the tacks and had a big fillet and taping session. I have done this kind of work before but this was the first time I have done everything together; wet tape on wet fillet. Wow! What a tremendous time savings! So thrilled to not have to sand the fillets and I think the quality will be as good or even better.

Moving right along: We had a relatively productive weekend. Friday evening, we were able to solve our aft bulkhead fit issue by loosening some ties along the center seam. This also cured a a bit of a fishtail shape in the bottom looking towards the transom. Then we finished the cradle, leveled everything up, agonized over the fairness, and finally locked everything in place with epoxy tacks.

I had run the numbers at the time and I seem to remember about $1000 difference in costs. Then I asked myself, "if I had a stack of plywood here, would I pay someone $1000 to come and cut it up for me?" In the end we decided to not do the kit. I am a little envious of kit builders getting a bit of a jump on the build and also getting to skip a lot of head scratching and inevitable mistakes.

Is this a CS17 or CS20? I've wondered about the feasibility of a cuddy on the 17. Nice pics, by the way.

We have run into a minor issue. Hull is stitched and inwales are glued in our best estimate of what the typical order should be. When we dry fit the aft bulkhead, the lowest point of the "V" of the bulkhead is too deep by about 3/4". We can easily trim the shape to match the hull but I am afraid to do this until I understand what caused this discrepancy. Both the transom and the bulkhead appear to be cut properly. Anyone else run into this? Should we have stitched in the bulkhead with the other parts?

Nice! Thanks for posting!

As I much prefer building to maintenance, I think I will opt to paint rather than varnish. I like the bright decks look, but I think having nice bright accents such as coaming, rub rails, and sprits will look good with a painted deck.

All terrain building platform. Cradle to follow.

Hull scarfing and assembly.

By now we are a few steps into our build and I figure we are about due to post some progress. This is a joint project with a good friend of mine. The plan is to construct the hull in his garage and I will work on any bits and pieces that can be done separately in my smaller garage about 20 minutes down the road. It's working out well so far. We plan to name the boat HALF FAST in tribute to our favorite mix of epoxy hardener. Ok, on to some photos: Centerboard.

I am told this is not Chinese. The 9mm seems ok. The 6mm on the other hand is pretty bad. Voids seen from ends, splits in face veneers, and paper thin (less than .5 mm) outer veneers in some places. I have $10 luan in my garage that looks a lot better. Good news is supplier has agreed to take it back and issue full refund. I am glad because either way I couldn't spend countless hours trying to make a solid boat with questionable base materials.

Thanks for the helpful posts everyone! This afternoon I went back for another look hoping that I had over reacted. See attached photos. Thoughts?

Yes photos would have been smart. Unfortunately the ply is about 20 minutes away in my friends garage. Maybe I can get him to take some pics.I am not sure of the brand but along with the dot matrix style printing of "BS1088" there is printed what appears to say "Martinply". I am told it comes from a mill in Guernica (sp) Spain. I am reluctant to name the distributor but it is one that historically has a good reputation on this forum from searching through old posts.Other than the three thinner plys, the sheets look great on both sides and show no signs of voids. The 3/8 is 7 ply and has the same issue where every other ply is thinner though not as dramatic.

Hello forum, An old friend and I are starting a joint venture build of a CS17. I have dabbled in boat building for the last couple of years mostly using cheapo Lowes-Depot materials. I feel that the CS17 is the kind of boat that should last a while and deserves good materials. So today we take delivery (delivery because we are several hours from anyone that would recognize the phrase "marine plywood") of the required 1/4 and 3/8 plywood in BS1088 Okoume. Here's the problem, or so I think. I've wasted enough hours lurking in boat building forums to know that the best 1/4 Okoume has 5 equal thickness plies. This stuff has 5 plys but the outer veneers and inner most ply are considerably thinner than the other two. How concerned should I be about this?