Kaimusailing

The race was on to get as much done in dry weather before the next monsoon kicked in, so epoxy allergy was ignored and the new shipment of epoxy was put to full use.
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The tortured ply hull now had its bulkheads bonded in, along with the wae's near bulkheads 1 and 3, hull side seams now were bonded together with 3 3/4” wide butt blocks of the same 3/16” ply. The keel seam was still unbonded and the ends were open, flopping about.
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The sheer stringers were trimmed at the ends and beveled so that the bows could be brought together for bonding. 16 new bare copper solid wire ties were cut to wire up the ends of the hull. First the hull was dry clamped to check for twist and alignment. It turned out that each end needed help to come in line with the 3 bulkheads. A line was rigged from each end, zig zag through the bulkhead edges, and when tensioned, brought everything in a straight line.
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The beginning was priming with unthickened epoxy, then using the rest of the batch thickened to fillet any voids as well as preparing the ends for gluing. At some point the whole thing slid off the sawhorses and suffered a green stick fracture on one of the sheer stringers. The epoxy was smeared onto it and clamped, work continued.
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First the ends were primed, then bulkheads 1 and 3 and associated wae's. Thickened colloidal paste was used to fair and fill voids and edges. Finally the keel and center line seam of the ends were coated with the paste. This is reverse of normal procedure. Normally the seam is wired and wound up, then primed and filleted with the paste. It is easier to prime and paste while the ends are still apart. The potential problem is if the little wire holes don't line up. They did. First the stringers were clamped together at the tip of the bow, then wiring and twisting from the knuckle of the keel up to the tip. Then the other end. Then the zig zag line was tied on and tensioned while checking for alignment.
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When all was in line the other hull, the wave piercer was on its side for epoxy. It had already been sanded. The technique is to apply the epoxy to a horizontal surface, so the exterior of one hull side, the one that is facing up, is coated, and the interior of the other side. Next time the other sides will be coated, then the interior of the bottom, hull turned over, exterior of the bottom.
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The picture is of the tortured ply hull with the ends wound up. The spanish windlass blue lines are still on the bulkheads. The red line is to straighten the ends in line with the bulkheads. It zig zags back and forth across the hull to pull the near bow to the left and the far bow to the right.