Thwarted again!

...well, maybe not, but it is a good post title... Anyway, the thwart tubes are now installed, but lets back up a bit. After completing the cockpit rim, I planed and sanded the deck and deck-to-hull joint in preparation for fiberglassing the deck. Once that was smoothed to my liking, I rolled out my fiberglass and cut it to fit. I ended up with three sections; one that covered the forward and starboard decks, one that covered the port deck, and one that covered the rear deck. Since I was cutting these pieces out of "extra" fiberglass, it was just easier to do it this way. Here are a couple pics showing the glass laid out:

Wetting this out was pretty straightforward. I started using a foam roller and plastic spackel knife, but ended up not using the roller that much; it was easy to spread the epoxy and work it into the cloth with the knife.

Then, last night, I cut some big holes in the boat! Fortunately, they are above the waterline... The holes are for the twart tubes which provide structural support to the decks and gunwales, as well as holding the akas for the sailing rig. I epoxied the tubes in place and applied some fillets to the inside and outside joints. I also added some small strips of fiberglass tape around the internal joint to make sure everything is nice and strong. Here are some pics:

And finally... I got the rear seat supports dry fitted. This was definately a challenge since everthing is curves and angles. I started by cutting out a scrap of chipboard to the size of my seat. I then laid it in place, took some measurements, and cut out my first attempt at a seat support. After plenty of re-cutting and planing, planing, and more planing, I got everything to fit nice. The funny thing about the pictures is that the seat supports look crooked and out of square, but in fact, they are the only square, plumb, and level thing on the boat!