John's Night Heron

The hull and deck edge strips are bead and cove, but the light and dark deck strips are butt-joined. 

Where strips are different colors, bead and cove strips might produce a wavy line when sanded, whereas flat-edge strips will keep a straight line. 

 I thought this striped deck design would show off the natural color diversity of western red cedar and also highlight the Night Heron's lines. 

The hull exterior is covered with 2 layers of 6 ounce fiberglass.  The rest of the boat gets one layer of 6 ounce fiberglass.

It is cooler weather now, November, so I am using Raka 127 resin and 350 no-blush hardener.  In the summer I prefer MAS resin and slow hardener because it has a longer pot life.    

I tried to keep the stems relatively small for visual balance and also to keep the weight down.

I'm fortunate to have a freezer in the garage so I can store brushes, rollers and glue to get multiple use out of them.  Typically I get a few days use out of each brush and roller.

The inside of the hull was fiberglassed while the deck was curing.

Spreader sticks in the hull keep the proper beam until the hull and deck are joined.  I don't want to wrestle it together!

Cockpit risers are glued to each other with wood glue, and to the deck cutout with a drop of hot melt glue.

Another view.

And another.

The coaming rim is made from woven carbon fiber and fiberglass, molded over pieces of foam shaped from an insulation sheet.

The strongback is inside the hull again, and I'm pleased that it's still an exact fit.

This is the second boat built on this strongback. I extended it about one foot after building my last boat.

The bow and stern end forms are removed from the strongback so they won't interfere with the bow and stern fillets.

The forms are made from 1/2" plywood and the strongback is from 3/4" plywood.  The end forms fit snugly into the slot in the strongback.