Coaming

Arlene checking the fit of the starboard coaming.  Amazingly, the fit
was good, and all along the coaming, the heights above the deck
were as per the plans.  We'll add a nose of Ramin to the coaming

In the past week or so, we've removed the seats, all the floor beams, floor cleats and floor sole planks to smooth them out and epoxy them, then painted the interior with protective white paint to seal against rain.  We've finished off the side seats and varnished them, and got on with the Coaming.
Both Dave on his blog and the designer, John Brooks in his build instructions, have said that the coaming is the most difficult part of the build, so we approached it with some trepidation.
Having read of Dave's travails with mahogany, and his replacement with marine ply, I decided to go straight to the marine ply option, using the last of my 3/8" marine ply that I had left over from the planking.

Woops....adding back
wood, never a good thing..

We scarfed the ply to make the 12' lengths needed.  Then we made a pattern from 1/4" non-marine ply. Then lofted the plan to the pattern and dry fitted it.  Seemed to fit pretty well, aside from a bit of a gap at the bottom at the forward deck end.  I marked on the pattern that we needed to add about 1/2" at the bottom, when we transferred the pattern to the marine ply. We did this fine for the port side Coaming, but forgot to do it for the starboard side, so had to add some wood back... a touch embarrassing, but we managed it ok.
I've decided not to varnish the Coaming, but to paint it. I know this is not the traditional way, but the scarfing joints -- which are fine in strength -- will show under the varnish, and now that we have the added bit to the bottom part of the starboard coaming, that sealed the decision....

Sunbaking floor sole planks

The port floor sole planks of Douglas Fir are still wet with sap.  We've been tracking their weight in comparison with the starboard dry ones, and they're still about 10% heavier.  So we put them out in the nice Hong Kong winter sun.  It's been about 15-20 degrees C, and 60% humidity, which counts as dry here in Hong Kong.  After initially losing weight quickly, they're now losing it more slowly, which I kind of expected: decreasing marginal returns, that sort of thing.
So, we'll keep them sunning themselves for as long as we can before fitting.