(1) After removing all the clamps and weights, we were pleasantly surprised to find that everything was very securely fixed. The few degrees off square thwart wasn't really going to be anything anyone would notice, and the repair to the cracked side tank stringer came out perfectly. The boat remains flat and straight so all is good! All in all, that was a good start to the decking and all the stuff above.
(2) Next step is fitting the decking. The first thing anyone building one of these things will find out it that the pieces supplied don't fit exactly and some trimming is needed. As Rich Larson noted in his site, we also found a wider gap on the front of the forward decking than we'd have liked but we'll use his trick and cover this with a wider fillet so won't be a big deal at the end of the day. As far as trimming goes, there's really no quick way to do this. Mark the notches for the butt straps and jigsaw them out, and then slowly remove material until it fits. We started out sanding but quickly found a rough rasp was best for custom fitting the decks. Probably a plane or Surform would work too but the rasp was fine for us.
(3) The efforts of the day were spent on the forward and aft decks. In the case of the aft deck, after trimming to fit, we glued it in place with an epoxy/403 glue and used a few brass pins, along with some weights, and the usual pipe clamps to hold everything securely down against the stringers. There was a wider gap at the rear that we'd have liked, a testament to our poor measuring skills but should be fine as we'll cover with an extra wide fillet to hide the quality of our workmanship as usual. We're becoming good at hiding mistakes. As well.
(4) Having trimmed and test fitted the forward decks, they require a bit of work to join the two sections. After marking the correct position for the deck beams, we taped/epoxied the joint (use Saran Wrap on the table so it doesn't stick as epoxy will leak through), and fixed the deck beams in place using the epoxy/403 glue. We didn't bother with pins as the epoxy will be more than secure.
Double check you have the custom trimmed deck the right way up before you glue things to it - double check to make sure. It would be a tragedy to get it just so and then glue it up on the wrong side.
We also took the opportunity to give the tapes inside the boat a second coat of epoxy for strength. You can never have enough strength. Strength is good.
(5) So back to 70407 since 36332's been getting all the attention lately. The aft deck came out pretty well, and is nice and solid. The fore deck was nicely solid too. Now it was all stuck together, Mark took a rasp and sander to it for a few minor adjustments to make it fit flush with the forward bulkhead, which amazingly it did. We also took the opportunity to sand any blobs and stuck-on Saran Wrap flat, and to sign the underside of the front deck for posterity. Not that anyone will ever see it till it's a wreck but we'll know it's there. The only minor defect was a slightly wider than preferred gap at the front that will get the same wide fillet treatments as the aft deck.
We applied a glue made of epoxy/403 to stiffen it up and give the glue some body to absorb the not totally flat bulkheads so everything is glued and well supported. So on went the foredeck. Starting at the back, above the storage compartment, and lining everything up off this edge (with a bit of a push and shove), Shawn pinned the deck in place while Mark forced everything into alignment (with the help of a couple of pipe clamps to squeeze where needed). Things actually went together pretty well.
(6) Attention now turns to the top of the side tanks. When you first throw the decks on, it looks like there's no way it'll fit properly.
After musing for a while, probably the easiest way to do this is to go old school, which is what we're doing.
Nowadays the approach is to add stringers across the tanks which is probably a bit stronger. This is fine but it means you're fixing the dimensions so tricky when you have to fit the tank top. The old fashioned way is to run an additional stringer the length of the tank, supported by an extra tank bulkhead (which MSD supplies). The advantage of doing this is that we'll be able to fix the front of the side tank top to the inner curve, then squeeze the sides against the outside edge for a tighter fit. This is not as strong as the cross stringer method but this was the original design, probably for exactly this reason, and since we're guessing 50,000 boats were built this old way without issues, we're reassured.
If you want to build using the cross member approach, check out Rich Larsen's website (see 'A Few Resources' for the URL), where he describes the scribing technique he used for a good fit.
In the picture on the right hand side you can see the extra bulkheads, notched out for the stringer, in place. We fixed them using the fiberglass tape and epoxy method to hold them secure, and fitted them just to the rear of the thwart. The extra bulkheads don't fit totally snugly and we had a 1/4" gap on both outer sides, hence the tape as a fixing method. This is actually fine, expected, and in fact desirable, as we'll be squeezing the sides inwards as the old build method tells you to do (36332's instruction manual contains a wealth of information and is proving very handy to have). Having a bit of compressable play is needed for this method to work.
Note also that we haven't fitted the floor battens yet. These are going to be one of the last jobs we do as there's a pretty heavy duty sanding session going to happen once everything is assembled and having them installed gets in the way of the sanders.
(7) Next stage was to add the side stringers. After taking off the weights (good news - all is in true as hoped), we cut the stringers to length, and epoxied in place with a stiff 403 glue, in a sort of primitive fillet (for added support strength). We added another block of scrap at the bulkhead ends to support the stringers, and reinforced another knot which we noticed with a companion piece of scrap for extra strength. The only other activity of the day was to glue the strap on the foredeck in place, and weight it down. To the right, you can see the end result after the weights were removed. Not too bad.
(8) Onto the shroud blocks. There's lots of measurements here but the general gist is the foreward blocks fit just behind the front deck, and the aft ones 10" (on center) rearward.
Of course, it's not that simple - never is - what would you expect. The stringers supplied are wider than the shaped shroud blocks so of course it doesn't fit snugly. No biggie though. What we did was to remove stringer material with chisel and rasp until the blocks came flush with the hull.
Because things may not be 100% square we had a rare bright idea and actually measured from the center of the front transom (as well as the rear per the class rules) to ensure the blocks were placed at the same distance and made a fair triangle. It doesn't say to do this but we found we would have been about 1/16th out if we hadn't done this. Probably obsessive but that's OK. Some things have to work out.
Once the position of the blocks was figured out, and the stringer notched out for a snug fit, Mark drew pencil lines where the blocks will be fitted. This allowed the holes for the screws that secure the blocks to be drilled in the right place. When doing this, don't do it too far to the outside - the shroud blocks curve at the edges and the screws will protrude which you don't want. Amazingly we thought of this before we did it.
The rest of it is pretty plain sailing really. Epoxy the hull side of the shroud blocks (I imagine most people would guess which side needs glue but just in case there are people like us reading..), hold or clamp in place, and put the screws in until everything is nice and tightly fitted.
One thing we did note is that the pre-cut notches for the side decks are the wrong shape - they're squarer and narrower (the RHS photo shows the side decking next to the shroud block). The notches look like the blocks used on 36332 so we presume the template used refects this older and slightly different design. The end result is a bit more shaping.
(9) Onto the side tanks. As mentioned, the notches needed cutting out and rasping into shape. We did this by aligning the side deck with the foreward deck and then marking the places we'd need to cut out for the shroud blocks. Once they test fitted snugly, we marked the rear of the side deck by laying it in place, and then trimmed to fit. This actually worked pretty well, obviously not our normal MO - really quite amazing. There's fiddling around involved here so the technique is really to cut a bit tight and then rasp out to fit. So far so good.
(10) As commented earlier, fitting the side tank decks is a bit awkward so we went with the longitudinal stringers to make compressing easier. Anyway, to do this, you need to fix the inside edge first. Before you start, figure out your game plan - get your pipe clamps, pins etc (and pre-nail them so you don't have to fiddle about - trust us on this) ready to go as time will be short when you get to it. Also make sure you remove any blobs of epoxy etc, to make sure the load bearing surfaces are flat.
Once you've got everything organised, pre-glue the stringers with a stout mix of epoxy/403 so any low spots are supported. After the glue, use the brass pins to fix the side deck to the inside edge of the side tanks, following the contour as best you can. The front of the boat is pretty easy but as you work aft it gets more difficult as the deck doesn't just drop into place - it has to be forced into shape. This is where your buddy, should you have one, comes in. In our case, Mark pushed the inside in with a rather large stick (and, trust us, it takes some shoving), to keep the edge flush with the deck, while Shawn whacked in the pins. This technique, while not perfect, worked pretty well. Repeat for the other side and try not to get a hernia.
Finally, once all the pins are in, wipe off any excess epoxy, remove the clamps, and do a final check for true (as this is the last chance to make any minor tweaks - not that there's much play left anyway),
On the right, you can see the fruits of today's labor. Apart from the minor gap between the side deck and the hull at the rear, and a little unevenness between deck heights that will take some sanding prior to taping, we're feeling pretty pleased with ourselves. Obviously there's lots of finishing to hide the many blemishes but we're smug anyway. So there.
As the last act for the day, we decided to re-hang the inner gunwales as test fitting found them a bit inflexible. We figured it can't hurt so, after making sure they were the right way up, we threw on the weights to see if we can make the next step easier.
(12) Next up was gunwales. This will take several visits, not because it's hard (though the outer gunwale at the front requires a bit of shaping to get it close - cut at an angle and rasp to shape - trim the rear of the gunwale provided after it's fixed so you've got room to fix screwups), but because there's around a million clamps involved as others have noted and we ran out. We used every one we had and more. Hand clamps are fine but there are places only a 'C' clamp will do as the gunwale twists as it bends into shape and needs squeezing into place for good epoxy adhesion and not to leave a gap anywhere. Make sure you check!
One point we found is it's practically impossible to make the gunwales snug in with the transom tightly so, as usual, we settled for near enough. As with many things on this boat, there's going to be many things that will get 'hidden' during the fairing stage. We did make sure we had enough material protruding so that it could be trimmed, shaped, and filled.
(13) Next step was the inner gunwales after trimming the excess outers with our spiffy new razor saw (buy one, they're good..). There's actually a fair bit of fiddling involved here for a snug fit.
We did, for once, do something smart, in that we clamped the inner gunwale to the edge of the deck and used the outer hull as a guide along the flat side of the new razor saw so we got the front transom right. Truth is though, this isn't really critical as the front gunwale being out will never be seen by anyone as it's very hidden under the bow shapes so there's much tolerance. Don't sweat this. We checked 36332 and there's a half inch gap at the transom you would never see and we could only feel. After 33 years of use, any structural integrity arguments seem moot.
We did spend quite a bit of time adjusting the hollows for the shroud blocks (with a set of wood carving chisels dating back to the '30's or '40's perhaps), and actually trimmed the shroud blocks a bit too, so everything fits snugly. We're certain you can do better by positioning these accurately in the early stages of the build but typical for us. The RHS inner gunwale went on very easily (after patient adjusting) and was glued and clamped in place (we didn't use screws - we opted for epoxy/403 only as MSD suggests). It didn't break, a major surprise as the chisel work weakened it quite a bit and a split was predicted.
As the careful reader will note, the gunwales and front transom area joint looks a bit of a mess - there's lots of excess material and a few small gaps here and there. There's actually method to this. Rather than spend vast amounts of time on trying to get everything perfect (which is waaaay above our abilities, let's be honest...), we opted to give ourselves excess material which can be sanded, shaped, and blended with some epoxy/405 filler. Hope this will work, as we're trusting a lot to our ability to blend and fill in the final stages for the overall appearance. Only time will tell so keep watching!
Not wanting to give the appearance of of things going smoothly, of course, we screwed things up in a couple of places. The rear LHS shroud block got trimmed too low so left a gap. We'll fix this with the original piece that came out (intact fortunately), trimmed down for the snug fit we were hoping for. The LHS inner gunwale, when being pushed into shape (actually rather gently oddly enough), cracked apart at the foreward shroud without us actually doing any 'customization' work (the wood was very dry so perhaps this was why?). We did curve the original notch as instructed which should have spread the load but probably not enough, and evidently in vain. This was a major bummer that meant we couldn't complete both the inner gunwales in the same session. The neighbors also learnt a few new words when it happened. Mostly French we think...
(14) After making up a new inner gunwale, and annoyingly breaking the first one (in exactly the same way as the original) trying to fit it, we moved on to the spare for another try. We wetted the wood down, hung it for a week, and this actually put quite a bend in the right direction in it. Amazingly this really helped and we were ready to go. Do this - it works. Below the hanging in progress.
Also worth mentioning is it helps to round out the shround blocks. It does actually say to do this in the instructions but, we, of course, didn't pay any attention to that. This helps big time so make sure you do it to avoid pressure points.