Slowly making progress. She'll sail someday! Got the aft deck installed yesterday. The hull still looks unfinished and rough sanded, because it's unfinished and rough sanded.  I'll do the final coating and finishing when I ever get the foredeck installed. The deck was laser cut from .8mm (1/32") birch ply. On the underside, surrounding each hatch opening, there is another layer of 1/32" ply that is about 15mm wide or so. I included a screenshot of the SketchUp model if interested. They give the deck a good amount of stiffness without adding too much weight.  Here's how it looks now. Took some outdoor snaps to get the better light. You can see how the mast well/scoop deck turned out. More later!  Cheers!  

The aft deck has now been epoxied onto the sheer planks and the inwales that I installed recently. The red foam thing has a hole carved out on the bottom of it so that it can sit over the backstay eyebolt and yet hold down the deck evenly.  This is from the scoop deck area, and shows the shroud eyebolts. Here's how the aft deck looks after the epoxy has cured and the edges have been sanded. Yes, you'll be able to see the edges of the plywood deck, but it's relatively clean look with crisp lines for the layers. If I ever do another boat I might try to inset the deck and glue it onto the inwales only, and then round over the sheer to meet flush with the deck. That would be a better look. Aloha!

Haven't been posting much, but progress is continuing on the Corbie 5 IOM. I've installed the transom plate. It's a very think lamination of mahogany veneer and a thin sheet of, I think, Alaskan yellow cedar that has had the boat's name laser cut into it. It gives a fun three-dimensional effect when polished. The scoop deck has been installed, and now I'm installing thin strips along the inside of the sheer to act as additional epoxying surfaces for the foredeck and aft deck. Off to an IOM regatta in Renton , WA this weekend to checkout current IOM rigging ideas. Aloha!

Lots of various projects going on the Corbie 5 IOM RC sailboat this week. Over the past few days I've worked on the hull, the foredeck, and the aft deck. Here's what I've done: On the hull, I've put my second coat of epoxy on the hull, sanded it off, and just now added the third coat. Tomorrow I will lightly sand it off and then mark the waterline with this... After that I will leave it lightly sanded and will eventually add a few light coats of varnish for UV protection. That varnish will be sanded and polished in the end. Won't be as glossy as unsanded epoxy or varnish, but will be very smooth and have a very fair surface. I realize that doing it this way will probably add significant weight, but again... my sailing skills are so poor that it really doesn't matter! Tomorrow I get to also remove the hull from the frames! I have also worked on my aft deck. It's made from 1/32" (.9mm) ply with two reinforcements around the underside of ...