Glen L Tiny Titan Hydroplane

It is definitely starting to look like a boat now. Today I glued and mounted the side planks and the transom as well as the sheer clamp to frame one. I also went ahead and glued and mounted the bow piece.

I'm at the point now where it's going to get heavy enough where I would like to have some casters so I will probably go to Home Depot later today and get a bunch of 2x4 so I can build a mobile sawhorse.

Well, I broke another piece. Honestly, I kind of expected this one to break. I had broken it a while back and just put a Band-Aid on it, but this time it needed a proper fix: a scarf joint.

Today I spent quite a bit of time dry fitting everything on the boat, including the coaming, the transom frame, the engine boards, and the dashboard panel. Nothing fits perfectly. I know I've complained about this in almost every post, but nothing fits perfectly. Everything is a quarter inch off, and in some cases up to half an inch off. It's frustrating, since I've put a lot of time into getting here and it just doesn't feel right.

For my next boat (cough, cough, the Squirt, cough, cough), I think I'll cut the pieces in different phases, a little bigger than needed, and trim them down to fit. For this boat, though, the damage is done. I don't plan on recutting most of the pieces at this point.

I've also decided to fiberglass tape a lot of the interior pieces. The plans don't call for it, but I'll feel a lot safer knowing everything is glassed so nothing comes loose down the road. It shouldn't add much weight, maybe a few pounds, and I'm not taping everything. But I'll definitely be taping the blocks to the exterior frame, the side panels, the bottom battens, and a few other components. It'll probably take a few days, but I want it done before I start on the paneling.

On a happy note, my son said it's starting to look like a boat, so I let him hop in for a picture.

Glued on some more of the transom frame