Building ‘Sharpy’ Part 64

Beginning to look like a boat


The time has come for making and fitting the bottom panels of ‘Sharpy’.

Bottom aft panel


This afternoon, I managed to cut the aft panel with a margin of about a quarter of an inch all-round. By measuring very carefully I marked and cut the slot to fit perfectly with the keel box. Before calling it a day, I scored all the parts that will be epoxied together.

Close-up of scoring

Sanding and scoring helps make for better bonding. Sanding removes any oils that have accumulated on the surface of the wood, particularly with hardwoods, and scoring improves grip.


If the weather plays ball tomorrow, I plan to cut the forward panel and hopefully bond both panels to the bottom of the boat. She then will look like a boat; in fact she would float as a boat. But there’s a fair amount of work yet needed to bring her to a finish.


I’m still having problems with getting the stainless steel parts made, which may mean coming up with solutions and doing the metal parts myself. There’s no sign of the sail yet, either, but I live in hope.