John Z. Mistral update: The decks are on.

John's Mistral now has her decks.  All of the key seams have been glass taped (I learned that vacuum bagging flattens the selvaged edges of glass tape, so there are no little annoying ridges to sand down).

The decks have two coats of epoxy but have not yet been varnished.The diagonal lip at the aft edge of the side decks demarcates the seating areas where John used thicker plywood.

At this stage the hull weighs 57 pounds.  John has plenty of leeway for rub rails, hardware, hiking straps, varnish, etc. in order to get the boat up to the class minimum weight of 75 pounds.  He intends to make several test coupons to predict weight gain with different weights and types of glass cloth to help decide whether or not to sheath the exterior of the hull.

A look at the neatly done fore deck joint around the mast tube.  A nice dark mahogany streamlined boss surrounding the mast tube might look nice.

Plenty of access ports in the well deck and main bulkhead.  The cockpit sole has a 3mm ply doubler in the "stomping area".  John may add a layer of fiberglass to provide a non-skid texture to the sole.