Fairing + Beams

Fairing is now complete for the starboard hull.

 

Also I now have both beams. As you can see in the picture below. One of these beams is not like the other. One is some aluminium section I managed to get hold of early on in the build. But when I tried to get more it proved difficult so I researched other options and settled on a carbon fibre section made locally, it is still wrapped in plastic here, the finish is so nice I might just keep it wrapped up for a while. It is customised for the boat with extra reinforcing at the ends where the hull mounts are. It looks great and is much lighter than the alloy section. The alloy section is round, it looks a bit strange in the photo because I have cut an angle off at the end which will later allow securing to the beam mount.





 

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.

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.

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.

Making windows

The starboard cabin is coming along well now with the side window and entry cut out.

An obvious process here but a lot of care is needed.

Cabin shape

Here we go with the starboard cabin. It took a lot of care to match up the cabin curve. I levelled the hull and used the laser level to mark the dimensions and sand to shape.

Then on with the first sheet of the roof .

Then the second layer which I propped up from inside and added some weight to make sure the bond is good.

Once again I'm back to putting on sheets of ply, which is probably the most enjoyable job during the build as the boat quickly takes on a new shape.

Duplication

Time to start on the cabin. Here you can see the panel which will become the inside of the starboard cabin. This piece was cut at the same time as the port cabin with the two pieces of ply screwed together.
You can just make out the pencil lines of the grid drawn to get the cabin top curve so I hopefully will end up with a duplicate of the port cabin shape.

Here are the first stringers to go on the aft part of the cabin.

And here the inside of the cabin is glued in place and the shape of the roof will be matched to this curve.