Saturday, May 18,2002
Todays first task was to make sure the stringers/bottom and bowstem connection were all marked in preparation for gluing the parts together. I went about this and double checked to
make sure that when I moved the stringers and bottom over for gluing that I'd be able to put everything back in place precisely and quickly. The first item up for gluing was the stringer to transom connection. The fit here was excellent except that the stringers were about a 1/16" low. So I propped the stringers up with a couple of toothpicks and wa-la they were perfectly fair. I went about the usual proceedure of pregluing until the transom and stringers had absorbed all the unthickened glue they'd take. Then I mixed up batch of strong putty and liberally coated both stringers and transom and slid them into place, of course making very sure that my marks were in the proper place.
Once the stringers were happily in place, I mixed up the squeeze out with some wood flour and made fillets all around the stringers. Then I put a layer of Biaxial tape 
onto the fresh fillets and followed with another layer of 10 oz tape. I don't want these stringers going anywhere. I'm also toying with the idea of taking additional steps to insure that this connection doesn't fail, but at this point I figure it might be overkill. Renn pointed out that this joint doesn't exist by it's self, and in fact get's much of it's strength from the connection to the bottom. Spredding the forces out over a larger area is a good thing. I finished up the day by trimming the stringers flush with the transom by using my perfectly wonderful Japanese pull saw.
I got rained out on Sunday. Temperature hovered in the mid 50's all day, so no gluing for me. Sigh.