The square frames rest on the keel without a notch. Two trenails, I use 1mm bamboo dowel, are then installed to hold each frame to the keel. When all square frames are attached in this manner, the keelson is laid in place over them and another single dowel goes from the top through the keelson, the square frame and into the keel. At this point the whole assembly is still very fragile. The three deck clamps are installed on both sides, at which point the ship is stable enough to be removed from the jig. The half frames are then glued and doweled to the keel in the carved slots seen below.
I spent yesterday carving the notches for the half frames:
In the upper left corner of the photo you can see the masks that my wife has been sewing. My next task will be carving the rabbet. I have been looking through lots of other build logs and have found some neat scraping tools that clamp an exacto knife blade in such a way that only 1/16″ of the tip is exposed.
I worked on the Rabbet today. I made a scraper from a razor utility knife blade. A cutoff wheel mounted in the dremel made nice work of the razor blade, then I mounted it into a small block of Delrin. I spent more time fabricating the scraper, than it did to carving the rabbet. Then I carved out the aft deadwood, fairing the rabbet into the bearding line at the base of the half frames.
