Working on the longitudinals

stiffens the hull somewhat.

This early in the build you do get to see how the hull looks like once the panels are joined together. But stitch-and-glue is work never done. Or so it seems. You keep going at the exact same place over and over and over: Loose stitch - Adjust - Tighten stitch - Tack weld - Wait for tack to cure - Unstitch - Fillet - Tape 1 - Tape 2 - Tape 3 - Wait for resin to cure - Sand tape edges. 

Meantime the build does not seem to move forward because there's hardly any noticeable change in the appearance of the boat despite all this effort and time. In plank-on-frame boatbuilding, for each construction step there's a palpable progression, a more instantaneous gratification for the effort; you can actually see the boat grow.

To unstitch the keel the hull is hoisted to get enough clearance under. A small butane torch heats stubborn copper wires.  Lemongrass lamp drives away mosquitos.

Stem to stern batten determines new shearline which is 4 to 5 inch higher than that indicated in the plans. Seems to be the best compromise to increase the cabin headroom without making the boat look ungainly.  It should also make for a dryer cockpit. 

After the sides are trimmed, the inwales are glued on with the help of a thousand clamps. Well, almost. Also visible in this photo are the wires tensioned with turnbuckles to keep the bow symmetrical.

The side stringers then go in and a double layer of biax is laminated to the 5mm plywood at the bow. Rather than trimming the cloth at the chines, frugal me decide to run it up all the way up the sides.

Plans indicate diagonal stringers here but other builders of similar design commented that the stringers get in the way of cleaning the area.  

Meanwhile a supervisor appropriates the tool caddy.

The keelson is glued on. Keeping the transom open up to this point makes it easy to get in and out of the hull.

Everything including the kitchen sink is employed to glue down the 5 mm doubler in the cabin section. A fairing compound made of Micromix and fumed silica smooths the biax layers.