With the inwales attached, the next step was to apply a coat of urethane. We used the Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane. It's designed for marine applications.
This took considerably longer then we were expecting (about 4 hours for a single coat). We opted to take our time and put on a thin coat, as we both have an aversion to varnish drips. We were sure to get all the lashing, underneath the stringers, and pretty much anywhere else. We started with the frame upside down, worked our way from one end to the other, then flipped the boat and worked back again.
Once the first coat dried, we sanded the inwales. The outwales were left rough, as they would be covered later on. It's really difficult to sand everywhere. The lashing makes this impractical. With the first coat on dryed, we installed the breast hooks. We mounted leftover pieces of stringer to the inwale with brass screws. The screws were predrilled, and we used the below flexshaft on a cordless drill to drive them.
With that done, the breast hooks were sat in place. Some minor adjustments were made with a rasp to the shape (unlike plywood, the angle of gunwales was not square). There is a notch cut out near the stem on the front and back to make it easier to drain the boat. The finished product was ok, but aestically, something about it bugs me. I think it's that the sharp lines on the edge of the breast hook contrast too much with the rest of the organic lines of the boat. We may shape this a bit more with our microplanes/dremel.
With the breast hooks done, we decided where the thwarts, yoke, and seats should go. This was done mostly by looking at pics of other canoes, and actually taking the frame down and sitting in it. The final layout might yet change. But before we get to that stuff, we have to install the floor boards. We gave them a coat of urethane and set them to dry to the right.
