At long last...

...I got my biaxial tape. I ended up ordering 40yds (4" wide) from JMSOnline.net. Price was great (~20% less than West Marine), and shipped quickly. For builders in the upper Midwest this seems like a good vendor (located in White Bear Lake, MN) if you need items quickly---items shipped ground to Madison arrived in a day or two. I just order more tape and colloidal silica tonight, so I will let you know how the shipping routine goes this time around.

As we finally got the tape earlier this week, Traci and I made some great progress this weekend. We started by filleting and taping the chines. We departed from the "game plan" a little by stitching in frames 018 and 053.5 before we started taping. I found that with the stresses and sharp angles near the bow, it was difficult to keep the edges of the side and bottom hull panels meeting at the corners. By stitching in frames 018 and 053.5, we ensured that the bottom and side panels met ideally on their edges. This approach seems to have worked well---the frames line up well with the chines and the sheer. No real extra trimming necessary.

Next up: while we wait for more colloidal silica for filleting, I will try to stitch the remaining frames. Frame 089 still has me scratching my head as to what the best solution is to keep the frame from contorting until the cabintop in stitched in. I will figure some way to prop open the hull in that area until the cabin goes on.