Painted at last

After two weeks of work I've got the main hull finished and most of the ama done. Luckily the foam/glass nosecone I made fitted the Fiji drain pipes. The marine ply is good quality and very cheap at roughly US$30 for 5 ply 1/4".
For stringers and crossbeams, I used the local "Dakua" or Fijian Kauri. This is one of the finest general purpose boatbuilding woods that I have ever used. I found several 12" x 1" x 20' planks. I haven't seen one of those since I was a kid. So no scarfing was necessary.
I'm using a polyurethane glue made by Sika, so I suspect it will work as advertised.
We're away on a side trip to Savusavu now for a week, so that will give my very sore wrist time to recover. The 12 hour ferry ride from Suva was very smooth.

The 12" diameter hatches fore and aft are cut from the tops of plastic barrels and are very much industrial strength.
I hadn't anticipated painting teeth on the bow, but the striping was just asking for it.
Needless to say I'm having a ball.

Fiji time

I'm here in Fiji now and it's good to back in a tropical climate. I've made a good start on the new Tamanu I'm building. The side panels are finished; the bulkheads are almost ready and I should be able to fold it up in the next day or so. As usual, it's hard to find tools and materials that we normally take for granted and I'm glad that I brought as much as I did.
The connection is very slow here so the photos will be minimal.