Today I woke up, headed to the Boat-Building Shop, and started my first day on my Senior Project. I've been working on my boat for two years now, and the time has come for the final few steps to be put into action. I am so eager to finish it up. Right when I walked in to see my Eastport Pram, I knew what I had to do:

1. Remove the clamps from my doublers.

2. Sand the handles of the bow and stern.

3. Work on filleting the internal frames.

4. Install the motor pad and scrape up the oozing epoxy.

There were some dents when removing the claps, so a quick sanding came in handy. I used a heat gun and scrapper to remove access/dried epoxy around the edges of the doubler. My first go at filleting the frames turned out pretty nice “looking”, but not dense and supportive enough. This led me to add another supporting layer of extra-thickened epoxy. The end of the day came in fast, so I quickly spread unthickened epoxy on the motor pad's surface, then quickly mixed up some thickened epoxy using around eight scoops of wood flour; subsequently, I applied that on top of the first layer. Using this two-step method ensures proper attachment. I traced the area and carefully placed the epoxied pad on the stern of the boat. I utilized four sturdy clamps to hold it into position. Easy day in boat building, I can’t wait to install the seats and epoxy my whole boat later this week. Feel free to stop in the Boat-Building Shop this week and see my progress!

Thanks for reading,

Calvin Monfried

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