More work on the shelves today!  Almost complete...
Well, over the last couple of days, I have almost finished the shelves.  There was some tricky spots and I wasted some time, but hey, I never built a boat before.

I got the front shelf stock (around the first 15 feet or so starting at the bow) ripped down, then coated with un-thickened epoxy.  It went on so incredibly smooth with these foam rollers:

I also found a wonderful generic equivalent online. I was able to buy  9" rollers for around 50 cents each, shipped!  I bought 50 of them, and they work just as well at the West System rollers, but for around 80% less.  Here are the before and after pictures of the two front shelves after the first coat of epoxy:

So then I mixed up more epoxy with silica and spread it out with a notched glue spreader.  This was a real pain and I think I will try a roller next time.  Then I laminated the shelf stock together (3/4 and 3/8) to get the 1 1/8" thickness and started driving the nails. (Actually Johnnie was driving the nails, he is much faster than me!)

After letting those set up overnight, I was ready to now cut out the template of the front shelves in the 1 1/8" material.  The outside edge I cut with a circular saw set for 17 degrees.  The inside cut I made with my jigsaw.  I used a brand new Bosch blade, and that baby started to get dull after around 14 feet or so.  After finishing the second shelf, the blade was really dull.  That is a testament to how hard the glue in the plywood is and how hard the epoxy and silica really is!

After the front shelves were cut out, I had to fair them out (smooth them out and make them match).  I clamped them together face to face and held them in the Jawhorse.  This was the not so fun part.  The outside edge with the 17 degree angle was very easy...I just used my handy Harbor Freight electric hand planer and smoothed them right out.  The inside edges were a bear!  I could not use the planer, and they are supposed to be a 90 degree cut.  Seeing the variation of the jigsaw between both shelves was pretty ugly.  I got out the belt sander with 80 grit paper.  The 80 grit was all I had.  Well, after going through 3 belts and all 3 of them falling apart due to excessive heat, I was whipped.  Up to Lowe's I go.

I run into my buddy Brian who works up there, and he told me that I needed to go much rougher on the grit.  He showed me a new line of sanding products from ShopSmith (didn't they make those the machines our granddads used to have?).  They had grit down to 36 that was ceramic coated.  The roughest grit they had in the ordinary belts I usually buy was 40 grit.  Brian told me that even though the numbers were almost the same, there was a big difference between 36 and 40 grit.  I checked it out, and he was right.  The 36 grit was much rougher and the ceramic coating made it feel sharp.  However, I almost had a stroke when I saw the price......$23 for 3 belts.  Well, I figured if they didn't do the trick, I would bring them back.  Here is what I bought:

Well, let me tell you, these babies were worth every penny!  They ate wood like crazy!  In no time I had the edges all evened up, and I was still using the orginal 36 grit belt.  After I was done, the belt felt like it still had 70-80 % life left.  This is a VERY impressive product!

After getting them faired up, I cut about a 64 degree angle at the end of the shelf to mate with the rear shelves.  This steep angle is done to give a lot of surface area for gluing.

OK, last major step for the shelves is to build the long, straight sections that will go all the way to the back of the boat.  I ripped up a bunch of 9 inch wide pieces and started laminating the same way as before.  The only difference was this time I used the roller to spread the silica thickened epoxy as well.  Worked fine, and was much easier because I used an extension handle and did not have to get on my knees to do it! Also, I had to drive my own nails, John wasn't around.

These two shelves are around 20 feet long.  Tomorrow, I plan on cutting my angle on the end of the straight shelves to match the angle on my front shelves, and glue them together.  I hope they will fit in my shop, they will be nearly 30 feet long!