I have not had so much time on the GIS build in the last couple of weeks but have managed to fit the supporting structure for the front and rear seat tops and also fit the mast step as shown in the pics below.  I need to mark out and cut the seat tops soon but fitting these will be my last chance to fix any twist in the hull so I will need to do some careful measuring and adjustment before gluing in place.  Last time I checked it was all looking very straight and true so fingers crossed this is still the case.

I have also fitted the daggerboard case that was built some time ago.   In order to fit this flush to BH3 I needed to cut out a section of the top framing on the forward side of BH3.   It doesn’t say anything about this in the instructions so I just made a guess that this is what was needed.   

Mast and seat supports

Before the seat/tank tops can go in they need to seat cleats fitted to the side of the hull so I have put these in over the weekend along with some of the supporting structure that is fitted on the centreline of the boat in the tanks.  In the pic below you can see the side cleats being held in place with a mixture of clamps and bits of scrap wood.  A start has been made on the outer gunwale as this needs shaping to the correct profile before fitting, I have dry clamped in place and hoping that the wood will relax into shape as this will make final fitting easier.   

I have also made the mast step and partner from Doug Fir, the partner is fitted in place while the step has been shaped to fit and epoxy coated.  It is critical to get this all fitted in the correct position on the centre-line or the Goat will be sailing faster on one tack than the other.

Finally I did a bit of shaping on the tiller, I made this some time ago but while the router was out I ran around the edges and tidied up some of the glue before it was epoxy coated. 

This weekend was the first chance I have had to use the PEC epoxy having made the change from West.   I have found that it is a little thicker that West but responds well to some gentle warming and this makes it considerably less viscous.   Working time is much longer, this is both good and bad so I will contact PEC to see if there is a faster version of the hardener component.  Once set there was a little blushing on the surface by much less than the West, this is a little disappointing as I was hoping to move to a blush-free epoxy as much as possible.  So I may not have solved the blushing problem but at least it is a good bit cheaper than West so I can live with that for now.