Planking the hull is going slow. My procedure is to soak and clamp into place one plank on each side in the morning. Then in the evening, when the planks are dry and bent into shape, I taper them as necessary and glue them into place. This means I can complete one strake on each side per day.
In the meantime, I have been working on the deck furniture. Here is my record of assembling the companionway. In putting the frame together, it was a little tricky to make sure that each corner was 90 degrees. I saw in another build log that someone added a support, and I thought it prudent to do the same.
The next step was to attach the curved roof. However, the roof piece in the kit was cut out with the grain of the wood 90 degrees from the direction the roof needed to curve. I could flex the piece with the grain, but it was clear that it would never bend the other way. My solution was to glue a row of toothpicks to a piece of paper, then trim it down to the shape of the roof.
Darker wood was added to cover the roof and create the hatch. I found an error in the picture instructions. The pictures show the wood on the roof identified as part 39, but it should be part 20.
Last was adding the doors. To assemble the door handles, it was necessary to open up the small brass rings, link them with eyelets, and close them. Somehow I managed to put them together (plus six more for the cargo hatch) without dropping any of the small parts.
