Building the Osprey Standard (Continued)

Well, here it is on January 30! All the panels are stitched and carefully aligned. All of the wires have been twisted tightly to hold everything in position and I have glued the keel seam from the inside. The second picture gives you a view looking directly at the bow. The third picture shows the inside of the bow. You will notice a small temporary frame that was added after all of the panels were in place. A similar panel was added to the stern to perfect the final form.

On February 5 I took the boat off of the table and took the table apart. I then built a set of special horses to allow me to more easily work around both sides of the hull. This improved access is critical for when I glue the remaining seams from the outside and then apply the fiberglass. Here she is on the horses and the gluing of the seams is underway.

After gluing all of the seams, it was time to remove the stitches. I used a bent nose pliers to remove the wires as suggested by a fellow builder. As you see in the photo, you can grip the base of the wire with the tip of the pliers while resting the bend of the pliers on a scrap of wood. A simple levering motion easily pulls out the wire without marring the panels. For those wires that I had nicely epoxied in place, my 60 watt soldering gun quickly heated the wire and softened the epoxy for easy removal. After some light sanding (Tip 6) it was time for some long looks. Just lovely! The fit is within a few thousandths of an inch over nearly 16 feet. Amazing! It is now February 12.