Left and below; the BEETLE Cat.   I've wanted one of these for some time.  Eventually I'll find just the right one to restore and sail!
IT'S HERE!  The OPTI is under construction and well on it's way!
Here the hull has been glued up on top of the mold.  The 2x4's are braced against the ceiling to hold the mold in its concave shape.
Here I am "filleting" the joint with thickened epoxy to hold the hull together.
To the left the "hog" has been fitted to reinforce the bottom in way of the daggerboard trunk.  Two more strips will be placed outboard of the wide center strip as shown right and below.
Out of the basement and  into the garage I sanded and coated the entire hull with epoxy for protection and began fitting out the hull.
It's never an easy thing to cut a hole in a boat, but this is what had to be done to fit the daggerboard trunkcase into place!  Below the finished product, in place and secured with fillets of thickened epoxy
Thoughts of a bright finished transom went out the window after a few minor boo-boos that would have resulted in a less than perfect finish.  Sometimes being anal is a pain!
While waiting for epoxy to cure and when I didn't really feel like working on the hull I created the daggerboard and rudder.  While not as stiff as racing quality foils they will be more than sufficient for the use they will see.  Belt sanding the edges to streamline them was made easy by the plies in the plywood and the cleat on the daggerboard was scrap Brazilian cherry epoxied and through dowelled.
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