Even though the boat is under 14′, I thought I needed handles to carry it and to tie it down while it’s on the van. Similar to my Heron, I made two handles of 1 1/4″ dowel 4″ long. 
I drilled/routed out one side to allow room for knots. I sanded the edges and gave both a coat or epoxy then varnish.
The next step was to locate a place to run the rope through the hull. You need to make sure where you are drilling and in this case, the hole would open into the hull. Of course this would allow water into the hold. So the best choice is to do what is called an end-pour.
The pour fills the end of the hull so that when the hole is drilled, it goes through epoxy and to the other side making it water tight.
End-pours can be tricky. First you have to place the boat on it’s end almost vertically. The you need to make sure that all the epoxy ends up in the end, not on the sides of the hull where it will go to waste.
Second, when you put that much epoxy ( I used 6 oz. on each end) in a confined space to cure it can generate a lot of heat, enough to discolor the finish as well as actually boil the liquid. To keep the temperature down, you place the pour in an ice water bath until it cools.
I put the end of the boat in a tub, although a 5 gallon bucket would have worked. Note: You get a quite a perspective on the length when it on it’s end.
