Building a Clark Fork Drifter: Getting Started
September 14-15, 2012

When I got to the Boathouse, I saw this adolescent heron hanging out on the Capt Ben F. I've seen him around a few times now, maybe he's out mascot? Does anyone know what to feed herons?

We had a new volunteer - everybody please welcome Bob, a Toledo native. He's helping Curt snap the lines for the sides. This is a very easy design and it should go together in a snap.

Curt and Bob working on the bulkheads. Since the design is so easy, we thought we'd do something a little different: We are going to fiberglass and epoxy coat all the pieces before we assemble the boat. This is a technique recommended by both Paul Butler (this boat's designer) and John Welsford, designer of the Mollyhawks.

We made Bob our Mixologist

Curt got the fiddy bits

while I got to tackle the big bits. At 3oz per batch, I used ~20oz of epoxy to saturate the 6oz cloth to the cockpit sole.

Curt was using 3.25oz cloth - it's probably overkill, but we had it . . .

Finishing up.

Next week: 'Glass the sides and get the strongback set up.