Kite +6%

My mistake there was two fold. I forgot to hit that end with the heat gun and pre-twist plus I yarded down on it too hard to try to close the gap. With both of those forces together it was too much. So lucky that it appears to have turned out ok.

I used my oscillating tool to cut the channel as well as a sharp chisel then a file to clean it up. I then laminated in some tapered walnut pieces and once the glued dried planed/sanded them down level. I dry fit the stem laminations over night and epoxied them on today. I used unthickened epoxy between the strips and then added some wood flour for the joint to the hull. I used a bolt to the inner stem at the bottom to keep everything centered that will be cut off after. The wax paper is to keep the epoxy off my ratchet straps.

When I went to the stern to work on the channel there I went as far as I could until I can get a couple of more strips in. I'm trying to ensure that the stems follow the design curve of the hull. I looked at a everyone's build pictures ensuring mine looked pretty close before the laminations went on. I want to keep the handling as close to design as possible even though I mucked with things. Not having the right materials on hand has made the stems quite a pain. I'm looking forward to rough shaping them.

Since I'm on hold strip wise I decided to try out a new tool. I bought a cheap flexible long sanding board with a vacuum attachment a couple of weeks ago. With some 80 grit Abranet on there it's working pretty well. After a little test on the hull I'm just working on the overly thick walnut sheer strip taking it down flush. After taping all the holes up it's working ok connected to my little dust collector unit. It's nowhere near as "dust free" as my random orbital though.

I'm liking the Walnut accents. Might have use some on the next build.

Black anodizing on gunnels? How easily does that stuff scratch off? While I prefer the look of the black I have Thule wing bars on my truck with just a small strip of rubber down the center. I'm sure there will be contact when loading. My current boat has vinyl on top with lots of scuff marks.

Walnut laminations turned out pretty good. I see one spot will need a little filler. Decided to go herringbone pattern with the stripping. It seemed the strongest and easiest for me to fit. It's going pretty well.

This is looking very nice! The accents are pulling together nicely, and that herringbone interleaving is also one of the nicer looking ways of doing it.