November update...building continues.

I'd like to introduce Radar. He's our rescued toy Aussie. He weighs all of 10.4 pounds and thinks he's a King. You can see he likes to help get rid of the mistakes we make by chewing them up. Here is the first attempt at my nautical lay-up.
A closer look at the first half of the combing lip. The lip is what you place your spray skirt over to keep it in place on the cockpit for inclimate weather or eskimo rolls!.

The hatch with the epoxie barrier and a foam lip. The foam will act as a form which you'll see in another photo.

Here, I've small pieces of glass that will be wet out with epoxie, then the second set of magnets placed onto it. The epoxie barrier will keep them seperated.

Did someone poop on my deck? No, that's a thickened epoxie mixture that will create lip and hold the hatches in position. After this sets, I'll lay 6 layers of glass over it. Later, when it's done curing, the hatch covers will come off, and this will get trimmed to the shape of the hatch.

Here, the combing wall has been epoxied into the cockpit recess after it was dry fitted.

The hatches are cut out with a japanese pull saw and ready to have the next step done.



Rare earth magnets are used to hold the hatches in place. These magnets are laid into a recess that was drilled and then glassed into place.


After the hatches are done, they are placed into position and an epoxy barrier is placed.
Here, the first half of the combing lip is epoxied together. It's 6 pices of Peruvian Black Walnut and one piece of Birdseye Maple.




The insides of Stella's hull and deck are now sanded and glassed. Then the sheer line was feathered for them to fit back together. These pictures are still at time of sanding.

But before that can happen, the combing wall of the cockpit and the hatched have to be made.

Lucy with her inlays and cockpit recess cut out.

Marie hard at it with the tedious inlay process.

Finished the inlays, now time for the cockpit recess to begin.

Lucy is out for some air.

Marie has really been busy with studying for her exams, but still managed to get a lot done. The Mahogany inlays are done, but now comes the next part. More inlays!

Marie is beginning the cuts for the rest of her deck inlays.
Holes and more holes. Are you nuts?!

The beginning of the infill.

Preparing Stella's deck for epoxy and glass.

The glass is "wet out" here. The first of three coats of epoxy.

After an hour, I squeegee the epoxy to even the coat before the next application.

Checking the work, looking for bubbles that rise up in the glass.

Marie is continuing here with her cockpit area.

After glass, it's time to take the deck off the hull. Here I'm beginning to remove the forms from inside the shell.

Seperating the deck from the hull. I used hot glue (small amounts) at intervals along the sheer line to hold things in place.

We have seperation! you can see the remaining forms still in the hull.

After removing the deck, it was fun to just look at it from a different view. All that work......whew!

I moved both pieces outside to finish removing the forms.

Stella's deck ready for glass

Marie has a lot of her mahogany inlay done now. She's working on the cockpit area now and should be ready to start the cocpit recess soon.
So, I have Stella's deck inlays finally finished!! I've sanded her down and she is patiently waiting for next weekend when I will glass the deck! This is the nautical inlay which was placed into a solid pice of black walnut that I hand carved the star into. Behind it is the paddle dock, which will have deck rigging added later in order to secure the paddle.


A view from above with the cockpit recess nearly complete and prior to the final sanding.















Sometimes we like to just look at the girls....not really believing it, but they are starting to really look incredible!




With the final sanding done, all I need to do now is prep her for the epoxy and glass. I'll have three coats of epoxy to add over a 24 hour period. This week I'll have to get the dust out of the garage and clean and prep everything.
I can't wait to see her glassed. I wiped her down with a damp cloth and the colors of the wood really jump right out at you!

October progress!

The cockpit recess is taking shape here. Once I finish the recess, it will be time to sand the deck and get the glass on her!
This is the Birdseye infill which will get the other piece in the picture infilled into it, leaving just a ring of Birdseye. The following picture has the completed infill. The compass at left is inlayed into a solid piece of Black Waltnut. I hand carved the shape into the walnut untill I got a nice fit and then glued it into place. I will cut this piece into the Birdseye, leaving just a ring.

Another view of the recess.
Marie continues with Lucy's infills, in between chapters of studying.

Finally got some work done...

These pictures are somewhat out of order here. This first one is of Stella's cockpit recess after I've cut the shape out. Here I have started the infill of the Birdseye Maple.

Here you see the template for the cockpit. The round hole was cut for the nautical compass which will be a challenge. It will be made of Birdseye Maple and Bloodwood and inlayed into Black Walnut and another ring of Birdseye.
This is just after I finished cutting the cockpit recess. You can see the piece hanging on the bow of Stella.
Here I've glued strips of Bloodwood and Birdseye together in order to make the Nautical compass.
Each piecs was hand shaped with a table top belt sander and here they are all sitting before gluing. The small diamonds haven't been finished yet.
After the compass has been done, I will hand carve the recess for it into the Black Walnut. It was trial and error to figure out how to get this all put together and originally, I tried to cut out individual pieces of walnut, but it proved much easier to carve it into a solid piece, which you'll see in another picture.
Lucy is on the right. Marie has been busy studying for her Architecture license and I've been busy with work, so until recently, we haven't had much time to work on them.


Finally finished the inlay of Walnut on Stella.
Stella with the cockpit recess traced on her prior to cutting.