Getting Started on Hull 381

Having read just about all of the blogs linked to www.i550class.org and a bunch of the forums on that site and the old one, I'm hoping to avoid some of the mistakes that were made in building the early boats, and only have to deal with my own mistakes.  In any case, I've started with 22 sheets of Meranti Hydrotek and some really beautiful Philippine Mahogany from http://marine-plywood.us/index.htm .   I realize that the plans called for only 19 sheets, but I figured that it was cheaper to buy some extra than to drive back to the lumber yard when I need more.  

the next picture shows sliced and glued Mahogany strips that are going to be used for the keel.  I've followed some of the discussions about using lighter weight materials for the keel, but I figure that I'd rather have some rot resistant material here, and the point is to put heavy stuff in the keel anyway (even though eventually we want most of the weight as low as possible.



Next up is to scarf together 24 ft. of Hydrotek (three times).  I decided to use the West System scarfer to have angled joints rather than just blocking the panels together.  I bought a sheet of moderately priced birch plywood from Home Depot in order to practice making these cuts.