I am back and have been working on the pathfinder when I can. I finished painting the bottom and had a 2 coats of primer on one side and 1 coat of marine enamel on the other before I left for work... I am doing no more painting till everything is more completed in the spring because it is to cold .. anyway I flipped the boat back over so I can start working on the inside again.

You might notice my sheer strake looks very un-plywood like.
I went to my local hardwood store that I personally like a lot in my area Coastal Pacific Forest Products (Vancouver Island)... I went there to buy some more marine ply . I was looking around and saw this piece of African mahogany It's measurements were 18 inches wide x 2 inches thick  x 16 feet long . It was quarter sawn and had that ribbony look I love with lots of color variations and character .. I reached deep in my pockets and bought it  with a sort of vague Idea of using it some how as a veneer to my plywood sheer.
I thought about how I would cut this wood for a long time before I did anything and ran through all the possibilities, such as getting a local sawyer to re-saw with a  wood miser or something, but the thought of all that waste  made the cringe . Since I have a  limited amount of tools in my shop such as a  band saw and planner I finally decided to use what tools I had , basically a real good table saw. I cut that beautiful piece of wood  at ten feet and brought that chunk to  my trusty saw and ripped it in 3 inch cuts along its leanth . I then took that 3 inch wide x 2 inch thick x 10 foot long piece and started slicing off 3/16ths from each piece carefully marking each one so I would be able to re-assemble in the right order.  
Anyway after I cut them I re-assembled the pieces  together, I  glued them with carpenter glue because I wanted the wood to remain flexible and I think the seems would look tighter with white glue. This was a tricky thing to do  and needles to say if I had a thickness sander  my job afterward would be a lot easier. anyway after They were glued I made a pattern of the sheer strake and cut out the plank and glued it with lots of epoxy to the plywood .I used my orbital do most of the smoothing so now I am going to have to use my  fairing board to get rid of all the dips. Several  hours of this will be necessary to get it flat and fair... I am thinking this little exercise maybe a little overboard but It turned out really good far better then I had hoped and I wasted very little of that amazing piece of wood and still have a 6 foot section left over.
I forgot that I took this  picture .. the big flip over.. You can see the Bristol beige color on one side
I started to install the inside bits
I have dry fitted the seats and the bunk flats
I also started placing the upper fore deck
I can start to imagine the launch.... ha ha ... gluing is almost impossible because of the near 0  temp, so boat building is at  crawl speed..

 

I pretty much amputated my index finger in a non related project using my angle grinder with a chain saw attachment ..so boat building will be even slower for awhile  :(
   

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