Feedback from Fred

Not much new to report on the boat since yesterday. A lot of baseball, but not much boat.
And more on the docket for today: Charlie's Phillies have a scrimmage at 12:00, which will have us out from 11-2 or so.

The Samurai costume is coming along extremely well (I think), but a shortage of black gaff is going to stall construction today.

I was very anxious about my baltic birch 1/4" plywood purchase, but Fred is reassuring:

On plywood: 1/4" is just right. Remember, it will be forming the skin stretched over the framework of the ribs. You did well to buy the baltic birch plywood. You can usually gauge the quality and strength of plywood by examining the number of layers, or plys, in any given sheet. 1/4" birch will usually have at least five plys, and a good deal of structural integrity, whereas luan, used most often in interior door skins and movie-set flats, will offer two surface veneers sandwitched over some sort of dried-out crouton paste.

A quick run out to the garage, and I see that my baltic birch is, indeed, 5-ply:
Hard to see, perhaps, but there are 5 layers there. Also cold toes (lower left)
Fred would have gone another way for the rails:

The red oak should be fine. I might have picked maple, if given the choice, but that's a personal bias--I tend to favor it over other hardwoods like hickory or oak for its cleanliness and clarity of grain.

This red oak is really very pretty, so I'm okay with my choice, but I did just realize I didn't get enough; I need two rails, each at least 6" longer than the length of the boat. I'm building it to be 14'6" long, so I need two 15' rails. But I got three 10' sections of oak, meaning I can have two 15' sections exactly -- but that does not count the 4" I am going to lose in the scarf joint. Bummer. So I'll take back one of the 10' sections (I got three), and exchange it for a 12-footer, and we'll be good.

My goal is to glue the ribs and try to get a start on the scarfing of the rub rails today/tonight. We'll see.

(Fred is also reassuring about my impending dread of fiberglassing, which--by all accounts--is tricky.)

Fiberglass is fabric + liquid. It is a process well-suited to conforming to the shape of three-dimensional objects.

Yes, in the hands of a skilled craftsman. I have grave doubts.