Day 10:

Father day 2006. The day began with wiring the bulkheads both fore and aft. The bulkheads were installed with a “slip fit” not causing hull distortion or so the instructions proclaimed. The reality is that there was some hull distortion installing the fore bulkhead. The bulkhead was scribed and trimmed many times tying to find that “sweet fit”. The best thing about this effort was the skill I developed using a hand plane. I previously sharpened the plane iron to that of razor sharp and it proved to be time well spent. Anyway the aft bulkhead did not seem to fit as the instructions would have it but we had to settle for the best we could make it. The fore bulkhead went in much easier although I tried to measure it’s position incorrectly. The hanging knees were wired in next without much difficulty.The next phase had to do with tightening all the wires holding the panels together to form the final shape. This proved to be a pain as many of the wires broke while tightening them and each had to be replaced. The bilge panels are now wired correctly to the bottom panel and the sheer panel in wired correctly to the bilge panel. There is one looming problem. The bow seems destined to move in an easterly direction while the stern seems determined to move in a westerly direction. This is not good. “Absolutely vertical”, please! Maybe tomorrow.