The precious deck stain has arrived safely from DM and it is now sat on the shelf ready for when I have got far enough to have a use for it!
Meanwhile, back on the bench, I have finished adding 1/8" x 1/4" obechie strip doublers to each lower edge of the 4mm bulkheads to increase the bonding area for the lower hull skins and for the same reason I have added some narrow and shaped 1/2" balsa wood to the bows on the lower keel and under the chine former as the plywood skins go all the way to the front of the bows and I want to give them a bigger bonding area rather than relying on the small surface area that the keel (with doublers) and the chine former have to offer.
I am also adding 1/8" x 1/4" obechie strips to the side edges of the bulkheads to increase the bonding area for the side skins too.
The Aerokits construction method uses the well established technique of doubling the first 1/8" x 1/4" obechie stringers with a second laminated layer to give a 1/4" x 1/4" profile prior to sanding shape. After these laminated stringers have been sanded to shape on a deep "V" hull like this, the bonding area for the lower skin gets reduced, so I added anther strip of 1/8" x 1/4" on the underside and when this is included in the sanded profile the bonding area looks a little healthier (about 9mm wide).
A little (but not much) extra weight will have been added to the hull by doing this, but the bonding area will have been increased significantly and hopefully this will give a good strong hull that can withstand some abuse for several years to come.
All of my boats get used on a regular basis and I often like to drive them fast (white water junkie?), but I also expect them to last for some time so a little extra reinforcement during the construction (that does not adversely affect the overall weight) is something that I like to include whenever possible.
With more "lock-downs" due to the spread of Covid looking likely in the near future, we are going away for a few days in our caravan (while we can) so there won't be any more progress on any of my builds until after we get home again later. Our return date could be dictated by HMG, but it will probably be early next week!
Enjoy your weekend!