I just reached the 100 hour mark in the construction of the boat yesterday. It's been 12 weeks since I bought the first materials, so this puts the average at only 8.3 hours of boat work per week. Although this is far less time than I would have liked to devote to the project, I'm pleased with the amount of progress and feel that most of this time has been used efficiently in order to get this far. With summer approaching I will soon have much more time to put into the boat and hopefully some full time weeks here and there. I've been working out of town a lot so that prevents getting in even an hour or so in the evening after work.
I just finished cutting out all the bunk and floor panels and getting the first coat of epoxy on those in preparation for installation. While working on these panels, I'm also finishing up the keel and bulkhead fillets so that everything below bunk level will be complete before they go in. I've also coated and installed all the longitudinal bunk bearers I mentioned in the previous post. These will make the actual installation of bunks go faster.
I'm sure the building of the second (starboard) hull up to this point will be much faster with all the patterns already made for the bunks and floor panels. And, of course, all the hull panels, bulkheads, and the stem and sternpost are completely finished, coated, and ready to go. I'm still trying to decide at which point exactly I want to begin assembly of the second hull. I know I want to at least finish all the bunk fillets on the first one, because after this point the hull will be stable and a solid unit that cannot get out of alignment. I may continue on to the installation of the topside hull panels, and possibly even turn the hull and fair and glass the bottom. But I don't want to get too far ahead on the first one so that it feels like I'm starting all over again when I build the second hull.
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