Boat Officially Started -  Stem Built!
Well I got home and started doing some real boat building work finally!  First up was getting the boat temporary carport squared away.  After almost losing it to our tropical storm last week, we got it all ready to go.  Also, the pop up camper will have to go to the smaller awning that is ready to go as well.
This is the 40x20 awning we are building the boat under:

This is the little awning that Brenda's pop up camper will be going under in a few days:

Well, the first item up in the instructions in to build the boat stem.  This is the most forward edge of the boat, typically where the Bow Eye comes out that you would attach to the trailer winch.  I made mine out of solid cherry!  How classy is that!
Here is the cherry rough cut and then epoxied together:

 This is the "rough" stock I have laying around to make the stem out of.

 Here is the rough stock after getting it machined down to close final dimensions.

That is a happy pup in the background.  Bud Light was part of the instructions for the boat building, I think.

 I used a mixture of epoxy, silica and wood flour to get a peanut butter like glue to laminate the five pieces of cherry together.  Before this, I applied a heavy coat of regular epoxy to the wood to let it soak in for a strong bond.  Then I lightly clamped it to let the epoxy do it's wonderful gap filling thing.

On another note, my first attempt at mixing epoxy, wood flour and silica was kind of a mixed bag.  First I mixed a little too much regular epoxy that I didn't get to use fast enough.  It started smoking and melted the cup!

After that, I kind of got the hang of it.  Here is my epoxy mixing station and, complete with Vinegar to clean the epoxy (yes vinegar works as good as acetone!), the wood flour, silica and a 100 watt Yamaha amp for the Ipod.  A man has to have his priorities you know.

How many beers does it take to build a boat.....?  I don't know, but I bet it is a lot.
Now that the stem is built, tomorrow it is time to make the shelves.  Most boaters call them gunnels, but they are the flat spot you can sit on or if you are seasick, what you are leaning on when you are heaving!  I have the large area ready for lofting the shelves.  Tomorrow that is what I will do.

Also, I got the Versalam LVL beams delivered from Lowes the other day.  They are 24 feet long!  They will become the main stringers (the backbone) of the boat.  I will be cutting them to shape in a few days as well.

Well, tomorrow I will make the shelves for the boat.  Hopefully things will go smoothly!

Oh, another great link for those that are interested is the fishyfish website.   There are some really nice folks there with a great forum.  Also lots of build blogs.  I have learned a lot from this site.  Great boatbuilding info site.