Right way up

A major milestone here as the first hull is turned over. It turned out to be easier than I thought after a test lift showed it wasn't too heavy. 4 people kindly gave me a hand to do the job. The boat was basically turned by one person lifting the bow and another lifting the stern while the rest of us guiding it and putting supports in place.

I took the opportunity to weigh it at this stage and it is currently 87Kg's. I hope I'm on target for the designed weight. It looks a lot smaller now but is much more interesting.

Paint

Got some paint on the boat now. I have used 2 part primer and a 2 part top coat below the water line using small rollers and a brush.

I have still not decided on a colour scheme for the top sides but have primed anyway.

Also, the rudders have had the same treatment and are pretty much finished!

Fittings

Now is a good time to put in the bolt for the fore stay.
I have used thickened epoxy in an oversize hole and backed with a washer. Then filled with epoxy filler and faired. The plastic you can see in the photo is just food wrapping plastic, which I use for most jobs like this where you want to be sure you get enough filler and reduce sanding.

Also I have drilled the holes for the rudder gudgeon's. I had these gudgeon's made up by a local workshop in 316 stainless to the designers specifications.

Painting Prep

With the cloth on, the bottom of the boat now just needs to be painted. Sounds easy but lots of prep to do. Not only to the boat, but also the rudders which are now at the same stage so might as well do them at the same time.

Here you can see I have added some west 407 filler to the boat and rudders. Then sanded smooth.

Lots of sanding here. I hope the neighbours forgive me. The boat acts like a speaker box when machine sanding, it was loud.

Boat cloth

I have covered the bottom of the hull with 200gsm fibreglass cloth. With two layers on the keel for extra protection as I plan to beach the boat a lot.
I started by applying the first layer on the keel only and cut it along the chine with a blade while the epoxy was still at the gel stage. Then applied a second layer over the whole hull.

 I was reminded of why I don't much enjoy doing fibreglass work during this session. The second layer took 5 hours non stop.

It has been very cold in Auckland lately but fortunately my garage is a fairly controlled enviroment and with a heater and dehumidifier I am able to do this kind of work.

I am mostly happy with the result. A few runs here and there and a couple of air bubles to sort out. It seems a shame to add all this weight of cloth and resin to the boat, but it should make it last a long time with less maintenance.

Filling and Filleting

Time for all those holes to be filled, sharp edges and corners to be smoothed and shaped in preparation for fibreglassing. Also the decision on weather to flip it over now or mostly finish the bottom first needs to be made. Flipping it over will be no easy task, also with the height limited in my garage once the cabin is on means I will be at least painting below waterline before flipping it over.

I have run a router down the keel chines with a 38mm bit giving a 19mm radius. There is a trade off with the chine radius. On one hand a large radius will be less prone to damage and easier to fibreglass and perhaps help the boat tack, but on the other hand a smaller radius will give the hull better 'bite' in the water when going up wind.

At the Bow I have used a 50mm router bit which has resulted in a near perfect radius at the bottom where the bow is about 50mm across. Again there are trade offs with bow radius. My preference is for a more blunt bow shape. In this case where the hull is very narrow, it is actually quite hard to get a sharp bow, as the sides of the hull converge at a very small angle.

This fillet for the inner wing is huge. Here I am part way through making it, I used about 3 litres of west filleting blend filler and used a compact disc for the radius. I have often thought about how strong this part needs to be so I haven't skimped in this area.

Bottom Covered

The bottom of the first hull is now covered with ply. It has for the most part been quite easy, I got into a bit of a rhythm with the process of marking the wood, mixing epoxy, coating, gluing/screwing. The hardest part was the sheet at the bow on the inner side where there is the most shape.

Another tricky job was making this curved plank. I had to scarf the lengths allowing for the curve by marking the scarf lines with the lengths placed at the desired angle then sanding to the marks which resulted in the angle of scarf changing across the joint. It worked well.

One milestone was the removal of the holder for the bow bulkhead which up until now had been doing a very important job. But has to go to allow for trimming and shaping. You can see it is missing in the top photo.