The reason the seats and other things aren't epoxied before assembly is that when you have your boat all wired together and are ready to do the filets, which hold a lot of it together, you are filleting on unfinished plywood. This gives the epoxy a chance to seep into the wood and create an incredibly strong bond. If the part you are filleting has been coated with epoxy you will have to aggressively sand the epoxy coating so the filet can adhere to the scratches from sanding because there is no chemical bond possible once a coat of epoxy has cured, only a mechanical bond. Now I know some people have pre epoxy coated parts of their boats before assembly but I would stick to the directions in the book. One more thing I learned the hard way, when you create the filets, be scrupulous in clean up the excess epoxy or you'll be sanding for a long, long, long time. 

Hey John,

I would agree with the previous response.  For that reason, as anxious as you may be to get started (and I totally get it), you may be creating more work for yourself by epoxying the seats and bulkheads ahead of time.

I do not have any experience with the lug sail.  However, the sprit rig, in my experience, does not point great and I suspect the lug might point better.  However, the sprit is fun and easy to manage, so might not be a bad choice for a new sailor.

Steven  

http://www.skerrybuild.com

   Thank you both for your input.  Steven, nice build thread and beautiful Skerry

John

   I never sailied with the sprit, so I can't say much about it.

I never liked the look of it.  The boom was just too high.  Now, I totally understand why it was designed that way, but I just never could settle in with it.  So I've set mine up with a balanced lug.  You'll read about how you need to move the mast step and mast partners back a few inches to balance the boat, but the honest truth is that I've had no problem so far, using the standard setup.

Now, my mast partner was crushed last year when the mast step epoxy bond failed, and I had to rebuilt it.  In the interim, I went to a 2 1/2 inch diameter aluminum mast. Wood purists will not like this, but it's light, strong and didn't cost much. 

   John Harris has addressed this several times and has stated the shape of the Skerry makes it very forgiving and there is no change necessary in the mast position when switching between the sprit sail and the balanced lug. I like the balanced lug sail also because you can put a reef in it  

   Thanks guys

I'm leaning toward the balanced lug, but given my total lack of experience , it's based on ignorance. Is the boom of the balance lug rig still high enough to row with the sail deployed?

That depends on whether you want to row, or because the weather has turned sour  and you have to row. The balanced lug sail is easy to drop onto the boom where it can be secured but you should have tried reefing first so to reduce sail. The raised sail holds the boom up so with a lowered sail it would definitely be in the way of rowing. If you must drop the sail you can lash the boom, sail and yard together and removing a couple of lines will allow you to sit that bundle away from the Nast in the boat and tie it down if you want. No need to remove the mast and once a lug sail is lashed to the boom and yard you hardly ever remove it.