This past weekend, we started planking the Starwind 860's port ama. With her first section of hull skin in place, the Starwind is looking more and more like a boat!

At what point does a boatbuilding project cease to be a pile of lumber, and become a boat-in-progress?

It certainly looks like we're getting there now.

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.