Carried on fitting the outwales using a 3-in-1 drill, clearance and counersink drill bit which I bought at the same time as the fixings.
Used my angle grinder with a sanding disc to cut away the excess GRP and then used a belt sander to bring this and the gunwales down to the same plane. In the process my neighbours car got covered with fine white/ blue dust so I had to do a quick wash down before doing anything else.
Added the kneeling thwart with angled spacers and fitted for size. Borrowed a router and shaped the spacers (gunwale offcuts) for the bow seat. Fitted the seat but not before giving them a coat of danish oil.
Carried on using the router with a 3mm bevel and routed all the gunwale corners. Borrowed a 10mm plug cutter and cut out enough ash plugs plus spares making sure I can match the grain up.
Jobs left to do:
- Fit plugs using epoxy mix
- Epoxy fill bow and stern inner gunwale points
- Hand sand all wood
- Danish oil all wood using hot oil
- Wait for the delivery of my missing grab handles before I can fully finish...
I've decided not to fit the stern seat for the time being since most of my paddling will be solo but will add it if both kids want to come out paddling. With this in mind I will probably not plug the fixing hole for the kneeling thwart since in my other boat I've had to remove it a few times. Maybe I'll design some kind of neat looking quick release mechanism but I'll leave that for later.
Sea trials not far away!
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