Gearing up

Up until now, all I've been able to do so far is think and plan for the building of Shan Skailyn. Living in the bush for most of the year gives me very few opportunities to gather needed materials. I've pored over Gary Dierking's Outrigger Sailing Canoe book. I've got many of the details stored away in my head now as I've gone over and over how I want to build. I've got a list of items I'm going to need. I intended to prepare some materials from the lumber I currently have in Mibu (where we live in the bush) but diesel fuel was sent in mistakenly on our last helicopter run, rather than petrol. So no generator, no power, no power tools.

We're out in Madang now for a couple weeks. I've been shopping around in town mainly for marine plywood. Nobody has it. Agmark said they could order it from Lae. Placed the order. Then a couple days later said that even out of Lae they're not going to be able to get it. Now having to look at other options. Either what they call 'proof' ply or 'common' ply. The common stuff looks nice. The 6mm sheets are 5 ply. Both sides of the ply are nice and clean. But they say it will fall apart if exposed too much to water. Then their 'proof' ply is said to be for exterior applications with some exposure to moisture. Bad thing about this ply wood is that it's only 3 ply. And even worse, it's got a super thick middle ply with very thin outer ply. Any thoughts out there about what I should choose between these two?

Also bought some Akzo Nobel Epiglass epoxy resin. Whew! That was the expensive part of the boat. I'm looking for advice/thoughts regarding the possibility of thinning the epoxy (with acetone cause it's cheap) and then giving all the plywood a good once over so it soaks into the wood and dries, possibly making it stand up better to moisture in the future. Planning on glassing the bottom and then coating the rest of the hull with un-thinned epoxy before painting.

Got some 6oz fiberglass cloth, SS blocks, rope, etc on the way from the states in our co-workers' luggage. They'll be arriving in country on the 9th here.

Oh yeah. I found a large 24'x18' polytarp in town too. It's kind of a strange material, but seems just as strong as the recommended reinforced stuff. Interesting thing about this polytarp material is that it's not woven. It's all one solid piece. Doesn't stretch like the weaker, woven stuff. Seems about the same stretchiness as the reinforced stuff. Hoping it will work for my sail. It's got UV protection. There are no seams on it, just one big piece of tarp. So I'm thinking it ought to work well. But what do I know. I've never sailed before. Just going on comparing to the reinforced stuff.

So gearing up here... Sure would be good to get thoughts on anything here, especially that plywood and epoxy. Gotta make a final decision on that one here soon.