All Systems Go!

I took some pictures of the gaps. On Christmas, I emailed one of them (shown below) to clcboats.com and asked for advice. Was this gap too big?


I got an answer from John by noon on the next day. This gap was normal! Time to get ready to glue!

I then closed up the gaps between sides and transoms. This went well and I was able to close up the gaps almost entirely. There were still some gaps, so I drilled a two more pairs of holes per transom and added more wire ties. This closed it up completely. I also made sure the transoms were flush with the ends of the bottom panel and top side panels.

Next, I leveled my sawhorses. I then moved the upside-down boat around until it overhung the sawhorses by the same amount port and starboard. This assured that the sawhorses were more-or-less square to the centerline of the boat. I placed a level on the top of the bottom panel, square to the centerline, in several places along the length of the boat. If it wasn't level, I pushed down on the high side and tightened the wires if needed. In addition, from underneath, I looked for light shining through any gaps in the panels. I tighted the wires where I saw light. After about an hour, I had the wires tightened up and the boat square.