Matthew's blog

Where's the good wood?

When I built my little runabout fifteen (!) years ago, it was pretty easy to find suitable plywood. The boat was a Phil Bolger / Harold Payson design, and neither man was big on spending money where it wasn't required. Payson's advice was something along the lines of "well, she's glass-sheathed, so you don't need the fancy exotic plywood – just use local AC exterior ply with the boil-tested glue." He was right; after fifteen years there's no evidence at all of any kind of rot, deterioration, delamination or other trouble with Sunset Chaser's fir plywood hull.

Crossbeam bits & pieces

Progress on the Starwind 860 prototype continues. It does seem, however, that I've fallen behind in posting updates about the boat.

The aft crossbeams are nearly done; they still need the fibreglass tape on their outer edges and a final fairing coat before painting.

The front crossbeams now have their upper mid-beam structure installed and are ready to be closed in. That task will probably take place tomorrow.

Back On Track

Our little hiatus is over. We're settled in, the essential work is done, and it's time to get back to the boat.

The next thing on the Starwind 860 build schedule is to finish up the crossbeams. Today, with perfect weather and (for the first time ever) plenty of space to work, we laminated the lower flanges of both forward beams.

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