Starting on the inside

I now had to flip over the boat.  This action is turning out to be somewhat problematic since I can't do it myself.  Because there are seldom any people around who could help me (or any people period) I have to time the "flipping" when my wife is around.  The boat is getting a little heavier with each step, so I hope she can continue to help me with this.

This is the part where the grunt work really begins, I think.  I couldn't reach the middle of the interior of the boat because the saw horses I have are too tall, so I had to cobble together a couple of supports that were no more than 18 inches or so high.  I sanded the entire interior, then vacuumed the dust out.  Fillets were applied to the joint between the bottom and number one panel.  While the fillets were still wet I dropped in four pieces of fiber glass cloth, one in each of the four compartments separated by the seat supports.  Straight epoxy is then applied to the cloth until it's pretty transparent.  After it stiffens somewhat I trimmed off the excess cloth.  This was a much more difficult job than fiber glassing the outside of the hull. In spite of thinking that I ensured the cloth was perfectly flat I had some bubbles under the cloth the next morning.  I was able to push these flat because, luckily, the epoxy was still wet. I don't think they'll be too noticeable when everything is done.  I filled in any remaining stitch holes that were open, then another layer of epoxy to the entire interior, wait, sand, vacuum, epoxy.  I'll have to sand everything one more time in preparation for the varnishing before installation of the seats, but won't get it done this trip.

Another view after the third coat.

I test fit the seats and they went in place reasonably well, except for the stern seat.  I'll have to deal with that next trip.  I beveled the edges of the seats after the test fit and sanded everything smooth, especially the edges that will be visible.

Two coats of epoxy need to be applied to both sides of all seats.