End Pour and Foot Braces

Before we attach the deck there are a couple of things we need to do while the deck is still off. First we do the end pours. We take epoxy with microballoons and pour it into the ends of the boat to make sure the ends of the boat are water tight, provide extra strength in case of impact, and allow us to drill a handle. The microballoons are lighter than the other fillers we have used thus far. They foamed up like a middle school chemistry experiment.

Then we take the chance to measure where we want the foot braces. We drilled out a larger hole than is needed. That is filled with epoxy so that when we actually attach the foot braces (after varnishing) we are drilling into epoxy not wood. This prevents water penetrating the hull. This was the first time Susan sat in the boat....Fun!