The plan is for that stack to one day be a boat. If you just felt something shake, it was probably all the redfish around Steinhatchee trembling. All of the epoxy products are SilverTip from System 3. Nice Stuff. The plywood is BS1088 Meranti marine ply. Looks like finish ply, but is suited to the marine environment. It's a little heavier than Okoume, but is also stronger and cheaper.
Today we spent the better part of the day getting rid of all the excess junk in the garage, cleaning up, laying down plastic on the floor, and gathering the supplies we'll need for tomorrow.
Not exactly exciting, but now we have a suitable build site and will start the real stuff tomorrow. The FS18 is typically built on a strongback consisting of two 16' 2x6's. The deck is placed upside down on these and then the frames are attached. The hull is bent around the frames. My build will differ slightly from this in that I will use an MDF strongback donated from my friend Frank's cedar strip canoe build. He's already done a lot of the hard work in getting a level, square work surface when he built this, so I'm going to take advantage of it. Here's the strongback from the canoe.
The top will be replaced with one more suited to the size of the FS18.And lastly, it's about time that everyone was introduced to the mascot/director of the build. Scourge of legitimate maritime commerce, king of the high seas, authority on all things nautical.......it's Cap'n Gnarly.
His cruelty is legend. And as you can see, some dirty bastard broke all the fingers off his right hand. Thus far he is none too impressed with our handiwork. We're hoping that will change. When asked to comment at least on the merits of the design, he responded with, "Aye. A fine craft she is......... a fine craft, no doubt." That's high praise coming from one as grizzled as the Cap'n.
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