Thursday 30 January 2014

Cabin 2 glassed and Hatch

The starboard cabin is now all glassed.
A few photos here showing the sequence.


Extra time taken here to get it all smooth is more than made up for by reducing the amount of fairing needed.


I did the cabin and decks in 4 stages. I have found working by myself it is best to do the glassing in smaller areas at a time.

Here also is the starboard hatch being enlarged. Made from two layers of ply with a curve as cut out from the roof, this one actually had a small amount of twist in it at the stage you see in the photo. What I did to fix it was when I put the fibreglass cloth on, while it was curing I supported the two corners that were low and placed weights on the corners that were high. I thought it was worth a shot and it paid off! the hatch now has no twist.


I'm getting low on Epoxy now, hopefully I have enough left to finish the boat. It will be close but it looks like I will have used very close to the designers estimated Epoxy amount by the time I'm finished.

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Back to the grind

After a short holiday break it is back to the grind here literally.

Again some hard work for the router swinging the big 50mm bit.


Here you can see the rather complicated looking aft beam area. I decided not to box it in. Instead I beefed it up a bit and went for an open style which seemed like a good idea at the time, mostly to match the port hull which is open to help with the outboard bracket. We'll see, it should make beam fastening a bit simpler at least.


The holes are all filled and faired.
Ready now for fibreglass.

Saturday 11 January 2014

The last panel

Making this boat is a bit like making a giant jigsaw puzzle where you make the pieces as you go. Here the last piece of the starboard hull has been made and put in place.

Simply showing the radius added to the edge.


And the finished panel.



Another big milestone is made. Both hulls are now structurally complete!
Still a bit to do to protect the wood and add some paint but a pretty good stage to be at.