(a work in progress)
Page 5...
Welcome to my 5th Page of progress on my Vacationer project.
Ok I have been preparing the rafters and roof stringers to accept the roof pannels to be attached. I also have been preparing the ½" Merenti plywood for the roof. I decided that the merenti is a mahogany species and looks wonderful finished bright so I decided to use a router, and cove out a line the length of the sheet every 4" to look like a cove and bead planked ceiling. The router I used was a Rotozip it was smaller and easier to handle than my router (plus I didn’t have to unscrew it from the router table). I clamped a straightedge down as a guide for the router...
.JPG)
.JPG)
Here is the boat all ready for the roof...
.JPG)
Well thats it for now. I did get the roof clamped down on the boat this evening, I hope to get it glued down during the week.
Till then...
Ok folks it has been a while since I have posted anything let me update just a bit, I am still building my boat.
I have been doing a lot of extracurricular activities and such, lots of life, some of it just plain getting beat, but mostly taking care of business at home, work and such.
It is 4th of July weekend as I type this snippet, and am actively back working on the boat. I have been working on the wheels today, I bug bombed the enclosure yesterday to kill the literally millions of spiders, and the few carpenter bees that may still be lingering. Nope don’t dig spiders! I just cannot work comfortable with them lingering in my space. Here in the S.E. we have lots of poisonous spiders that have the capability of rotting the flesh right off your body. so it does tend to hamper me a bit in the summer months.
I will continue work on the wheels tomorrow morning and hopefully, if not tomorrow, the next day get "Frankenboat" out of the dungeon, and into the light of day to finally get the roof sealed on her. Sorry I have not posted much as of late, but It hadent occured to me that folks acctually read this stuff. 
Well expect some more photos soon, and I will be posting.
Till then...
Hello all, I have been actively working on the boat again, and have made a little progress with it. First off after making that pretty roof pannel for the cabin, I noticed that I had made a few errors in the forming of the cabin wall's at the front of the cabin.
They were slopped downward on the sides, and the front top stringer was too low, it also had a slight bow in it. How I missed this I have no idea, after spending way too much time worrying about how to fix this, I removed the screws and cut the stringers off with a jigsaw hugging the pannels close.
Now I will remeasure and remake a new set of stringers that will fix this problem. I also finnaly put the pannel stiffeners up in the bow section on the right side , I did however change that a bit as well, lets hope it does not rear an ugly head and bite me there too.
What I did was to take 1"x2"'s and glue and screwed them to the hull wall's in between the pannel stiffeners, Then I measured and custom cut 1"x2"'s to the full length of the 1"x2"'s underneath and epoxy'ed and screwed these down.
I plan on building a shelf out of biskit joined 2"x6"'s placed up in the stem to hold the marine batteries, and to mount the 3 way battery switch to as well, to begin laying out the electrical system.
I installed the last side pannel at the right rear of the boat I was using this as an access point till now.
I did get the boat rolled out into the yard, out from under the carport, and it has been raining ever since lol, but I did learn that the boat is water tight as none of the hundrads of gallons(so it seemed) that leaked into the boat from a holy tarp, did not leak out of the boat and had to be pumped out.
I did get the entire inside of the boat caulked with Dap Marine 5200 and I must say it takes that stuff forever to dry, and I still await the cockpit to dry so that I may begin building the seats.
It snowed here a couple weeks back, I know to some of you waht I have here dont mean diddly, but here in these parts it is still a specticle, so here's a picture of snow in my front yard, and also on top of my boat...
Oh also someone had asked me to add a picture of the wheels i used on my building dolly so here it is...
"In the times when I am trying not to think, I just sand the decks, and sand the decks, and sand the decks"....
...So Far the heavier stringers have worked quite well, I measured and cut them, stained them and glued them into place. I trimmed all serfaces up to par with my latest toy, the electric hand planer. I kinda' like it, It made everything so nice and even so easily, but it does have the potential to really make a mess of things as well
.
I Laid the center roof pannel over the rafters and stringers, and began epoxying and screwing the pannel into place. There was still quite a bit of tension at the front of the cabin roof pannel, as it has a compound "stressed skin" bends that make it unbelieveably strong. I had use bolts, one on each side near the front, to pull the pannel down to form, the giant industrial sized wratcheting strap helped out too. The process went fairly un hindered, and the pannel laid right down.
I have since cut the stringers and pannels for the two side roof pannels. I pre'drilled and counter sunk each pannel and stringer, mixed the epoxy and put them on and they are just amazingly strong the whole thing just became solid when i got that roof on. I dont have any pictures of the whole job yet at it hasnt stopped raining since I put them on, I will post them directly...
Hello all, I'm back! Ok since my last post I trimmed my side Pannels flush with the bottom of the boat, using a method taught to me by Keith Mclean. Using a router with a flush trim bit, rolling the bearing along the bottom, and the blade cutting the side pannel, and it worked fantastically. In fact when I finnished with the side pannels, I continued to trim the transom, and plan on doing my final roof trim the same way.
I removed any and all bad screws (stripped), and proceeded to trim the front of the cabin roof which I will do the final trim today.
I also cut the stringers I will need for the seats in the cockpit, which I plan on getting in this week.
Photos? yes I have a few here they are.
Notice all the holes? when I mixed up my epoxy, everything that could possably go wrong did and ate up my time, causing me to get Panicked as the epoxy was curing quickly. Iit got dark and I missed (ahem!) a "few" screw marks causing me to have to remove them. No problem though, thank's to thickened epoxy
Ok that's all for now, I will post more as I progress, I am working on installing the cockpit seats, I will let you know how this new challenge pans out.
Allrighty then! It's been a while since i have touched my project, Lottsa real life and procrastination has gotten in the way.
I plan on getting this bird in the water as soon as possable, enough time has passed since I stoped.
I will post here when I acctually do something more lol.
--------------------------------------------------------
New Just in!!!
Well I have finnaly finnished my seat's!!!
I finished framing them into place, then I measured and cut out the seat front's and top's
I made sure everything was looking good and then glued and screw'd everything into place. I filled all my screw holes and then caulked the cockpit, and seat's with 3M 5200 marine caulk. 
I then faired the sides of the roof top, and the top's of the gunwhale's, with my electric plainer and a belt sander.
Since then, I have been filling screw hole's, and between Joint's with thickened epoxy.
I will be fairing the top deck's and cabin with a longboard, and thickened epoxy, sort of like doing body work on a car,
I strongly recomend 
{{NOT}} using bondo, as it will saturate and pop off. Leaving you with a divit or hole in your boat 
I will be fairing the top of the boat and cockpit, getting it ready to begin glassing as soon as possable.
I hope to at least within a week be glassing the top of my boat so that I may roll it over, and put it back into the boatshed and begin fairing the bottom for glassing.
I have aluminum to make an aluminum foot for the keel, I will install this at that time. 
Well that's all for now folk's, I will post some photo's of my progress as soon as I take some.
Oh, head slap of the week?
When you build a Boat, Do yourself a favor.
Totally encapsulate any deadwood, before you complete assembly. So that each piece of wood is completely encapsulated with epoxy, before you complete assembly. This will keep the wood from moving with humidity changes. Had I done that I wouldent have to figure out how to fill a joint without ruining it.
Tha tha tha that's all folk's! 
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Well, today I cut my windows into the cabin walls, and I must say, I really like them!
Here are some pic's. They are not "finnished" I have to do some fine sanding and lining, but they are dead on where I wanted them to be...
looking through to the other side just after opening them up.
I really like them, they kind of look like cat's eye's 
Youll notice in the pic below the frame work and shelf this is the basework for my cabinetry.
I plan to have pull out bins that will pivot out from the bottom, and to have small cabinets above the installed shelf. I have a sheet of 3/8" merenti I plan on using for this as it will finnish bright really purdy.
Here I have the inside out 
I was trying the fit of the inner rings which will make the rim covering the wood and the seal for the opening. the acctual outer rings will be stainless with smoked glass.
So that got me a wee bit pumped 
Two hatches on the lazerete to cut out, some "more" sanding and filling (I'm sure) not too much I expect though.
And then I finally glass the top. Can not wait!
Well more to come soon!!!!
Ok I have been cutting out my seat hatches and my lazerete hatches...
I Went with making two hatches on the lazzerete instead of the one in the plans. the plans have you put one hatch in the center of the lazerete which is where the stringer that connects the two pannels together is located. I have been on 2 vacationers ,one with the stock hatch ,and one with the two hatches, I must say that the two is better than the one for access. Plus with the guy that designed the 2 hatches, Keith Mclean. figures not cutting the pannel joiner, will keep the lazzerete much stronger and I have to agree. Also, before I put the sides on, I installed fir 2x4s from the deck to the floor stringers. So to mount my stering pullys, instead of bolting them through the side pannel's. I'm not sure if it was craig, or Keith, that came up with that idea? We were all talking at a messabout, and I was taking notes. "especially the woulda couldas"
So I figured it a great idea. It keeps one less hole in the boat, and makes the pulleys much stronger. I will add some pic's of it soon.
My next project is to make the seat hatch frames that will be mounted under the seat top's, to add strength and support to the seat's while providing some really good access to alot of storage space. This is not in the plans as well,
But Craig Gleason was saying he had some water issues With his, and had he to do it again he would put his seat hatches on top instead of on the seat fronts as per the plans.
I like them, they will work out great, I plan to run the hatch frames the length and width of the seats, and screwing them from the top. this will add alot of strength to the seats so they wont sag or give because of the hatches I put in.
I also plan on glassing the frames before instalation, To give some good abrasion resistance on them as well as encapsulate them so they will not rot.
More to come...