Snow on Mauna Kea after last night's wind storm.

 Fastened the the shear beams to the stem in preparation to finish up front panels.  Few more days and layer one should be in place.

Moving right along the strip and spilling is much easier towards the bow as opposed to the aft sections that have the tight turn.  It will likely get more difficult to keep the boards behaving towards the transom.  Some long hypodermic needles arrived so I was able to fill glue inside a void in the keelson.  The aft planking will now continue.  It was held up waiting for that task to be complete.

The staple guns have been acting up.  I really like the Dewalt stapler as it has a powerful hammer and pounds 9/16" staples all the way through the keelson.  It is easy to load but the first one I bought failed after ~ 1000 staples.  The release mechanism appeared to have worn and would not lift the spring anymore accept every 3-4 attempts, enough to drive you nuts.  There is a lifetime warranty so I shelved it, bought another and picked up a 5k staple box of 10mm T50s.  I also bought an electric Stanley and will try it tomorrow.  The Dewalt is beautifully built and feels tough.  The release mechanism parts are hardened steel so it is troubling as to what the root issue is.  It takes getting used to as the staple exit is not close to the edge so you need to develop a fell for where to place the gun.

Attached transom at the keelson  without issue.          I figured I would hold off until the molding was 50%.  Stripped two more sheets of ply into planks.  This will be enough to finish the first layer of ply. Here is the hole at the laminate void. I am not worried about voids as the boat stays out of the water.

Scarf tool for 3mm marine ply sheets.  I will use this to build up 8 more strips then cut up a new 4x8 sheet tomorrow.   

Last time the keelson will be out alone.  Put a coat of epoxy all over.

Keelson now mounted and strapped in place with metal gussets.  Added some plastic sheets over the mold and preparing for laying ply.

Started the skin installation.  Takes a bit of finesse to lay these down flat but the process is getting smoother.  The strips are continuously twisting as they lay down and the slightest error lifts one edge or the other.  The form is not perfect so takes a bit of care to stay on a fare line.  At the sheer the strips are clamped and stapled but not glued.  As the second layer comes along I will remove only the staples required.  Wondering how much spring back there will be but that is certainly a long way off, this is slow going.  Work should require approximately 280 strips, 4 strips / hour, 7 ml epoxy / strip. Staple gun noise limits work to before 8pm :(   Using 5/8" brads and 12 mm heavy duty T50 staples. Arrow stapler is pretty good, Powerone stapler was weaker than the arrow, and a Dewalt is working pretty well after taking back the first one I bought.  It would not pass staples.  Plan to put together a scarfing jig to make more strips with the leftovers tomorrow.