Thwarts are in.

Weather has been crappy, so tough to get much done.  I did manage to get the 4 seats in place.  After putting the risers in, I realized there was an unfair spot at the ends.  So I loosened up the risers, put the outwales on, and reset the risers.  That faired it right back up.  Turns out the risers were strong enough to pull the sides in a bit, pulling a couple of spots out of line.  Anyway, here are the pics with the seats and outwales installed.  I also have some breasthooks cut to cover the ends of the stems, but they will go on at a later time.

I'm not planning to put inwales on the boat, but I am going to cover up this plywood edge...

 ...with a piece of trim wood.  This will go right along the tops of the outwales, essentially turning them into a rabbeted outwale, to cover the ply edges. 

Next I need to round off the frame tops, fit the breasthooks into place, and do some glue clean up.  After that, I'll be ready to move the boat indoors where I can flip it and apply some polyurethane paint to the bottom!!! 

seat risers

Seat risers are in

Slightly tricky trying to clamp them in.  The wood is pretty stiff, so it needed some clamping pressure.  How to clamp them though?  Could try to wedge them in with a stick against the other side, or I could use these handle little 3-way clamps.  But, how do you get the clamping pressure over the frame?

Mark I: scrap of wood to bridge the gap.  Works OK, but if you have to crank up the pressure too much, the angle of the block makes the riser wood want to squirt out. 

 Mark II: Modify scrap.  This little offset foot should help spread the pressure and get things flattened out.  The cutout matches the thickness of the riser board.

Mark II in action.  Worked great.  These shots are for reference, and were taken after all the installation was done.  But you get the idea.  Note: if using such clamps, make sure you don't put the clamp pads too close to the riser wood before you cinch them down.  Otherwise, it's somewhat possible that maybe you might just not have enough room on the throw of the clamp levers to untighten enough to remove the clamp.....Not that it happened to me, mind you, but I can see how it would be possible....ya know, hypothetically....

Just got done planing some boards to glue together for the thwarts.  Would be easier to go buy a 10" board, but I still have LOTs of cool mahogany 3" boards, so why not....?  Should have enough of them glued up to install some seats by next weekend or so (clamp and space limited).