The smaller section of whale bone has been fitted and shaped at the stern.
I used an electric sander to fair the bone into an ivory-like finish.
Along with the spotted gum outer stem (that's STEM not STERN), the whale bone provides some protection to the strip of Australian red cedar that runs through to the end of the stern. I think that I can improve upon this construction detail so in coming days I may cut it out and rebuild it.
Apparently there was a lunar eclipse this evening but with my head buried in the boatshed I missed it.
This photo was taken about an hour after the eclipse ...
"I looked out my window in the dark
At waves with diamond quills and combs of light
That arched their mackerel-backs and smacked the sand
In the moon's drench, that straight enormous glaze ..."
( Excerpt from Five Bells. Kenneth Slessor. First published 1939 )
