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Once the ribs have been fully penetrated with SMITH'S they receive a final coat of epoxy resin to seal everything in. This step took 1 person about 7 hours

The sealing of the ribs protects the wood and staples used in the laminating process. The final product also looks great.

Here's the head again after the finish epoxy coat has been applied.

Did we already say that it looks great?? Yeah, I thought so. This view is from the head toward the stern.

The engine compartment after the ribs have been epoxied. Note how the planks look here. During the surface grinding of the ribs Doug touched up each plank with the coarse grit paper. This removed the de-lignifiedwood fibers. Prior to laying down each rib the same process was followed. The resulting "fresh" surface of the planks on the interior will be penetrated with a "sauce" of linseed oil and turpentine.to return some moisture to the wood.

In the meantime we were finishing off the reefing out of the seams at the keel.

A note about penetrating epoxy and our plans at this point: Earlier we had decided to epoxy in splines to the plank seams. After a conversation with Steve Smith (the inventor of SMITH'S penetrating epoxy) we changed our minds. Steve tells us that penetrating epoxy is "hydro-phobic" but not hydro-proof. This means that water stays out of the wood but the penetrated epoxy treated wood does absorb water vapor. Accordingly, the planks will eventually swell up and become just as water laden as un treated wood. Because one of the purposes of a seam is to absorb the flexing and swelling of the planks as they take on water (vapor) and move while under way (as in sailing... which is what this is all about) we decided not to have the seams become rock solid by gluing in splines. Our fear is that the planks themselves would become the brunt of these flexing and swelling forces. So, the decision now stands at using the 3M product, 5200, as the only seam compound. Our worry in this decision is the elimination of the structural integrity which the cotton gives the overall hull structure. Steve Smith indicated to us that the molecular structure of the 5200 is such that it will provide this force locking the planks against each other.

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