I called Paul Fisher the other day for advice on the gunwales and he faxed me over a drawing of suggested gunwales / breast hooks, he provides excellent aftersales, I am most impressed with his entire operation (products, advice and customer focus) I am still undecided about how to proceed here, I would like watertight compartments for storage and buoyancy but I think time will force me just to apply a simple breast hook with a carry handle either incorporated or as a batten just behind it

Moulds

Before filleting I gave the inside of the stitches a “crank” with snipe nosed pliers just to give them final nip, I notice that the moulds are no longer tight, must be the drop in temperature and increased humidity due to the rain, I hope it warms up before I give it all a coat of resin

Cranked Stitch

I completed the filleting between the stitches, this is a bit of a task, first you have to get the mix right then work out some form of delivery, I went for a large syringe initially which delivered a small bead of fillet but it was difficult to load and operate, I ended up using a ½ inch brush and just loading it on, there are not many gaps between the planks and the majority of the chines are flat (ish) so I don’t really see the point of most of the fillets, in hindsight I should have skipped it for most of the chines and gone right for a tape joint, the vertical joint fillets just seemed to drag down and I will probably end up with a fair bit of sanding, the temperature has dropped and we have had rain so the resin did not look like it was going to cure, I left it overnight and this morning it was still tacky! I hope it goes off. It doesn’t look very good at the moment but I'm sure that once the tape goes over the fillets it will be fine, a fair bit of filling will be required to make the inside good for painting, I cant see how you could build this type of craft with this method and have a good enough finish to varnish
If I was to do this again I would look for a better delivery method like a caulking gun and make different spreaders from plastic for the different shaped chines, I would also request some assistance, one caulking and one spreading, I would pick a fair day for faster curing
If I have any resin left I will conduct an experiment on some scraps substituting epoxy fillets with green Gripfill, I am sure it will do the job just as well and would be easier to handle

Stem Fillet

Chine Fillet

Fillet Runs

I had another major problem with the resin, the hardener fell over and I lost most of it! It just pours out of the dispenser when inverted! I went to a local dinghy store and got some more (£8) but it was 206 not 205 I was told not to mix them, anyway with all of the fillets and less than efficient method of applying them I have now run out of resin too so I will have to get another 1.2kg pack (£25) I really don’t want to be buying any more than that, while I was in the store I picked up a paddle for £17 a bargain!

Those stitches really are dangerous, I bent down for something and caught my head on one, heard a nice ripping sound and thought I will probably have to make a trip to A&E, luckily I only have a couple of deep scratches, this project really is blood and sweat (no tears yet though!)