Got off to a slow start on Saturday having had a little too much to drink with the local boat builders. Just as well because the mid-morning heat was something awful. Finally got to the boat at 3 in the afternoon. Not wanting to stop as night fell, we broke out the 300 watts of metal halides I bought for our aquarium last Chirstmas (which due to this boat building itch have not had time to install) and worked till past 10PM. The cool evening breeze encouraged us on and we were able to finish all of the unglassed segments of the keel and chines joints, and most of the frame-to-planking joints. We did not glass the bow because I still had to decide what to do with the cracked bow panels. Surgery was still the favored option since it would be a permanent solution. However still being a bit skitish about taking an angle grinder to the hull, stayed my hand.

On Sunday, I woke at daybreak and hurried to put in as much work as I could before the 9 o'clock sun breached the tree line to the east. I let everyone else sleep till 7:30 and happily finished off a few remaining frame-to-hull joints. Breakfast was called just after 8 o'clock after which we flipped the hull to finally decide what to do with the broken bow panels.

Earlier I had, like a surgeon, drawn the cut lines I thought would work best. This region of the bow is heavily curved and I figured I'd need to find a section where the panel was straight so the replacement panels would nicely butt to the existing ones.

My plan was to cut along these lines and use fiberglass butt joint to put in the panels. Figuring the butt joints would not bend well, if at all, if I let them harden in an unbent position. I thought to attach a bending piece of plywood a few inches from the cut lines, separated from the wet FG butt by a sheet of plastic, and bent shape. There are quite a few problems with this so FINALLY, the cracked bow panels just got glass over.

All in all there now 7 layers of glass on the keel and 5 layers on the chine seams about 12 inches from the bow. At the point where the bottom pannels and side panels meet, there are 17 layers of 6oz glass. I'll probably add a few more layers over the "nose" just to be safe.

Since the boat is going to sail with this way, just all plastered up, I asked the wife and daughter if they would like to call the boat "Broken Nose". They 're still not convinced so her official name will probably something else.

On Monday's I get up an extra hour early, so I pulled the plug on the halides just after 7 PM.