The First Step

The kit comes with panels that are assembled to make the boat. The panels come in half-lengths, meaning that each panel has to be glued to another at the butt ends to make one panel that will span the length of the boat. This is the first time to use the epoxy and fiberglass tape provided with the kit. It comes in two parts - the epoxy in one jug, and the hardener in another jug. They have to be mixed in exactly a 2/1 ratio or it won't dry. I don't know if it's by design, but one nice thing about the entire building process is you get to try many of the "first time" steps in a easy to recover part. For instance, I screwed up and mixed a 2/2 ratio when glueing one of the panels together - it's easier than you think to screw that up. It doesn't dry. The only resolution is to scrape off the gummy residue, and wipe it down with acetone to get back to bare wood. This wasn't so hard on just one butt end of a panel. It would be a real bummer to screw that up when putting epoxy on the whole boat. Another thing we learned - they provide mylar to put under the pieces being glued so you don't glue the wood to something you don't mean to. But the instructions said you could also use wax paper. Didn't work for us - had to sand a bunch of glued on wax paper. But, now we've learned a few things and have our panels glued together into 14 ft lengths.