Step Three: Cutting the Plywood and Assembling the Pieces

So you've measured twice, (at least) and now it's time to cut. I found that the best way to make the cuts was to adjust my circular saw to the depth of the plywood and just go for it. To my surprise the saw went through with no binding or bogging. I tried to use a jigsaw but found that it seemed to wander or drift a bit so back to the circular saw.

The first pieces cut were the sides. It doesn't look like it but there is an arc in the panels that rises to about one inch in the center of each panel.

This photo was taken prior to the joining of the panel sections. The arc in the panel is clearly visible now. I decided to to not use the butt blocks and settled on a bi-axial tape joint on both sides. Each side was joined using a double overlapping layers of 17 ounce bi-axial cloth tape and epoxy. Overkill maybe but I wanted to be sure.

Here the panels are glued together in the manner described above. The arc is really clear when you put the pieces side-by-side.

Here We have the bottom panel being glued together. There is a butt block on one side and a fiberglass joint as describe above on the other (outer facing part). This will be easier to see when the boat goes 3D!