Fibreglass

I am part way through applying fibreglass on the deck and cabin. It is slower progress than the bottom of the hull due to the more complex shapes, however the warm and dry weather at the moment makes it easier to get a good result.

Here are some photos of cloth laid out ready to go.

As I mentioned in earlier comments, there are different methods to apply the cloth. It has been a good learning curve by doing the relatively simple shape of the bottom of the boat before doing the top as the top is harder to do. But I am getting the hang of it. What works for me is to cut the cloth to length and spread it out smooth over the surface and tape the over hanging edges in place and cut for corners etc before putting any epoxy onto it. Then just wet out the cloth  in one direction, coming back where I started with a sharp blade to trim when it is starting to gel.

I have been surprised by how you can get the cloth to go over very tight radius edges without getting air bubbles if done carefully.

Cabin Done

Here it is.

With the cabin finished, the port hull is now structurally complete. Lots of things still to add though, but a very nice stage to be at where I can visualise how it is all going to work.

I have filled all the screw holes and gone over the corners with the big 50mm router bit. It is now ready for a layer of boat cloth.

Windows & Entrance

Here are the side windows for the boat.

I had these CNC cut which did not cost much more than the cost of the Acrylic. I simply emailed the DXF files and picked them up. The edges are polished and look great. I didn't trust myself to do a good job cutting them, so it is nice to know they are exactly the shape designed for the boat.

I then used the actual windows to mark out the hole.

Next job was cutting out the area which will become the hatch and entrance for the cabin.

Obviously, lots of care needed here, so I took my time using the multitool to get a nice clean and straight cut.

The pieces I cut out will be used to help form the sliding hatch and entrance panels.

Cabin continues

The outside of the cabin is now really taking shape. I used the laser level to get both sides of the cabin to match, and added an extra layer of ply on the inside to strengthen the chain plate area. Then the roof is placed on as two layers of 4mm ply to get the curve.

I thought I would add this photo after speculating in the previous post comments about how it will sail. The hulls are fairly slim with a 16:1 l/b ratio.

Starting the cabin

Time now to build the cabin. The process of getting the roof profile is tricky especially as I have to repeat it exactly for the next hull.

Going off the plans, I drew a grid and copied the intersecting locations on the grid to get the roof profile and then screwed two pieces of ply together to cut out a matching piece for the starboard hull at the same time.

I now have a lot of pieces ready to go for hull number 2. It will be interesting to see how much less time it takes.

With the cabin starting to take shape I can get a feel for how much room will be in there. There should be plenty of room for overnighting and more. It is probably the most space you could reasonably expect to have in an open deck cat this size.

The back

The aft deck has is now almost finished.

The Rudder gudgeons are fixed in place and the deck is reinforced for the beam loads. The beam mounts are not on yet. Because the hulls are not being built at the same time I might wait until both hulls are finished before adding the beam mounts so I can get the alignment exact. I will likely add an outboard mount to the inboard side here also, but it might wait also until the other hull is finished as it's location is partly dictated by the beam location.

Front deck

After at least a month of not being able to do any work, I have resumed the fun.

From this angle you could almost be fooled into thinking the first hull is complete. The truth is far from this.

I have mostly completed the decking of the bow area including the main beam area. The decking under the main beam mounts took quite a lot of time for not a lot of visible progress, compared to plain single sheet planking which is actually very fast. There is significant reinforcing to take the loads from the main beam here. I still need to take to the hard edges with the router but I'll wait for the rest of the decking and cabin before doing that.
I have left the hatch sitting in it's cut out mostly just to stop dust, screws and whatever else might be around from falling in there.