Yes, you're doing a great job Julio and she's looking lovely.
Just a note to James and others embarking on a similar venture, regarding some of the nasty surprises I have encountered which are not documented in my boat building literature.
1. Check the thicknesses of your plywood with vernier calipers before or after purchase to ensure the thicknesses are uniform. For 6mm ordered I received half the batch which was 6.5 mm and the other half which was 7.2 mm. I didn't realize anything was wrong until I had finished the scarfing and couldn't get the level finish on the planks I was seeking. Yes, I had to redo some planks.
2. It probably doesn't apply if you are adopting the standard procedure advised by Keith for a plywood transom but if you are going for a solid (African) mahogany one when you get to the planing be careful of the humidity of the shop. On a table having one face resting on the table and the other open to the atmosphere you'll find the transom will warp and when you turn it over warp again and on and on. To avoid this take the wood to a warmer environment and let it stand with both faces to the atmosphere for a week. That way you reduce the warping and can plane the transom level. But proceed delicately.
3. Be careful when you are laying down the hog over the molds and to the bow and stern. Keith says there should be a slight S bend between stations 3 & 4, I believe - and it is slight. If your inner stem is too high you'll get the S between stations 1 and 2 and when you go to put the keel on it will look strange -like a banana. Of course this happened to me and I had to adjust the thickness of the hog, using a thin fillet to get the best curvature.
4. Careful with the epoxy mix and don't mix too much, a little at a time and thicken it up with colloidal silica until it is like margarine or slightly thicker in a plastic freezer bowl. If, like me, you mix too much everything will melt and you'll have a fire hazard with smoke pouring everywhere. Also, if its too thin then, when you come to put the garboards on, there is so much force that the epoxy won't hold and the garboards will spring off creating an awful mess and a nightmare to resolve, as happened to me. Clean up with sandpaper acetone & redo.
5. If you're a stickler for detail, you should bevel the inner stem and transom before laying the planks. This is tricky and requires a ton of patience but Keith should be able to give you the inner and outer profiles of each of these.
6. (you better start getting the beers in .:-)) You may have a whale of a time with the gains at the bow for all the planks. Keith suggests mating surfaces, the books use gains which are lipped insets into each plank at the bow to obtain the correct blending of the hull lines and maintain the beauty and grace for which Merlin Rockets are noted. I am a masochist by nature, and consequently took the hardest route with all this - cutting out two half gains for each plank. Think about two hours for each half gain measuring checking chiseling and planing, four hours alone for this for each plank, about 60 hours total, the sheerstrakes only have one each. However, in the final analysis this is probably stronger and guarantees more linearity in the blending at the bow.
7. And one final one. You need to be really careful when you lay the planks. the outer edge should be fair, ie a lovely gentle curve without any dips. If not, you need to support the plank in its correct position using anything to hand to get the correct geometry. The horrible positions are in the space towards the transom where the planks are inclined to dip and between stations 1 or 2 or 2 or 3 particularly for the garboard or broadstrake.
Anyway, I don't want to bore you with further details, just now at least, but just to say - be aware.
As I am now a fully qualified paid up member of the MROA again, I now feel justified in banging out my views in this space.
The boat ?? - She's coming on and now I'm about to start the gunwhales and I know that's another nightmare awaiting me just around the corner.
However - Sim Salabim
Good Sailing Everyone & Best Wishes
Ainslie French
