Since the last post, a lot has happened. And I mean a lot. In the last post, we had one section of cockpit floor down, now it's all done. We also have a keelbox. Anyway, rewind. After my last post, Oaky & Timmy set to work, and fabricated the basic section of the keelbox. Using an excess off-cut from the keel, they wrapped it in marine carpet, and then piled on some Carbon Fiber, to achieve the shape, and then glued it into the hull. We also put the back section of the cockpit on, after giving the icebox a lovely coat of paint. After gluing and filleting that section in place, Oaky & myself worked some magic, and laid Carbon along the join between the top-sides and the cockpit sides. After a bit of fairing, it doesn't look too bad at all.

Last week, Timmy left to go on a cruise to Fiji & New Caledonia for 3 weeks, and so left Oaky and I with the job of getting the boat ready for Sports boat & Trailerable nationals in 6-7 weeks time. No mean feat.

However, we’re currently making brilliant progress. In the 4 days since Timmy left, the two of us have made the keelbox close enough to a nuclear bunker. After already having strips of hardwood shaped and glued in, we then resined the side of the keel shape, and put two big pieces of timber down either side, before filling any gaps with some bog, and then closing it off with some pieces of resined ply.

Next on the agenda was finishing the floor. We gradually cut down a piece to fit the width, and then cut out a slot above the keelbox, obviously, for the keel to go through. Then, today, we stuck it down, after running some final fillets down the side of the keelbox, and resining the entire thing. After gluing it down, bogging up all sorts of holes, and Oaky running some beautiful fillets, we took a break to wait for it to set, before getting serious.

We cut some 500mm wide Carbon in to strips approximately 165mm wide, and then resined down the sides of the cockpit, and the bottom of the cockpit sides, and then laid down the Carbon and smoothed it out. We smashed out the port side, but took a little bit longer on the Starboard side, needing to smooth a few kinks out, with help from one of our mates.

Now, our hope is to start laying down some glass tomorrow, mainly on the cockpit floor, and nationals are looking decently realistic at the moment! Final challenge is the rig, with only a bare section in the shed at the moment. Also, if anyone has any tips on which sort of glass cloth to use where, they would be greatly appreciated!

Anyway, stay tuned for more very soon!

Progress.

Since our last post, we've made some very good progress. Especially where the keel is concerned.

Our primary focus has been on the foils and the cockpit floor. After cutting the pieces out, leaving a small section at the front for us to fit the keelbox, we resined the two main pieces, and tonight we stuck down the middle section of the cockpit floor, before running fillets along the edges, and weighing the section down with the lead for our keel.

As you can see from the above photo, we've also beefed up the transom, to provide some extra support for the mounting of Hiking straps.

Now, the foils.

We have just completed the fairing of our rudder, and will be looking to coat it with Hi-Build etc. in the very near future.

We have already passed that stage with our keel though. A coat of Hi-B

uild is on, and we will be looking to paint very soon, stay tuned to see the colour scheme!

We have also made a couple of other other minor adjustments. One is to stiffen up the underside of the overhanging cabin-top lip, and one other involved the outer sleeve for our Carbon prod. We originally placed it so that it finished up just short of the stem, however we have now cut it back so that it is flush with the strengthening that was originally put in.

Our other little task was to place some Carbon around the front of the stem, which will look pretty cool once painted, and all of that. You can see this in the above photo!

There'll be another post soon, hopefully filled with Paint and Fibreglass! Until then, watch this space!

The Return.

So, it has been a good 5 & 1/2 months since the last post, and that is because not alot, if anything, has been done. Oaky and Timmy have recently finished the Sydney-Hobart yacht race, and now we're back, and right back into it. Our first order of business was the rudder. With the basic back-to-front profile completed, we needed to decide on a shape for the bottom, which we did. We then resined it, and then wrapped a layer of Carbon cloth on, and then some peel cloth for overnight.

After that, cockpit sides were the order of the day. We decided that we wanted to go with a rounded cockpit seat edge, rather than having a sharp/pointy edge to sit on.. We're doing this by using 100mm wide pieces of foam, cut to fit between each set of frames, and then using epoxy to glue it to the underside of the seat. The step we're doing now is to sand the corner of the foam to produce the curvy shape that we're after.

We've now put the cockpit side sheet into place below the foam, so progress is looking good so far. We've recieved our mast and boom, and our sails are not to far off, so watch this space for more info!

Keel and Co.

So, it's been a long time since my last update, and we've got a lot of stuff done. All the decking has been finished, with only the cockpit floor and sides to be completed. After a few minor dealings with customs, all our hardware has finally arrived, and we're currently in the process of deciding how to run and place it all, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

We've got our rig, and we're looking at the completion of the boat relatively soon, as the keel is really the only major project left to finish, and I'll keep everyone updated on that.

Til' then, stay tuned.

Decked to Impress.

It's been a while since my last decent post, so here's one to satisfy. We've recently been focusing mainly on the deck, with a little bit of work, mainly fairing, continuing on the keel. The foredeck has been placed, secured and cut down, with only a little amount of sanding still needed to bring it into line with the hull. Also, the same work has been done with the port side mid-decking, just around the side of the cabin.

As we still have uncertainty over exactly what we are going to do as far as cabin entry is concerned, we are yet to make a move with the starboard decking, as the hole there is currently our only means of access inside. If anyone has any ideas about cabin entry, please let us know, they would be greatly appreciated.

And here is a picture of the keel, although it is a tad dark. It still needs to be cut down a bit further, as well as been glassed.

Gray Scale

Bit of painting happening up the front..

Cabin Magic.

So, after an extra week or so, the boys have finished the cabin flooring, and it's all filleted in, and looks great. Also, they've started and got alot of progress made on the the coach-house roofing.

We're making great progress at the moment, so look forward to a few more posts coming up very soon. Stay tuned!

More Carbon, and more wood.

So, after about 5 or 6 weeks, we're smoking along very nicely. After receiving the prodder and sleeves from C-Tech, progress on that area happened very quickly. The outer sleeve has now been secured to the hull and the forward-most bulkhead. 500mm wide Carbon tape as well as fiberglass was used to attach it through the side of the bow.We're now in the process of deciding on a set-up for our tackline and pole extension systems.

The other thing that we've started doing is the floor of the

cabin. We've so far completed the starboard side of the cabin, and should be finishing it all in the coming week.

Lots of Black Stuff.

We have now received our Carbon Prodder, complete with inner and outer sleeves from C-Tech in New Zealand. We cut the hole out of the bow today, in an offset position, to fit the outer sleeve through.

We set the prodder up, just to have a look at roughly how far it'll go, just holding it in by hand, and by hell, it's gonna carry a lot of sail.

Thanks to Alex and the team at C-Tech, who've done a great job with all the gear, and have also been very helpful with tips on how to set it up properly. We'll be looking to set and rig up the system in the coming days or week, so stay tuned!

Caaaarbon.

So, after filleting everything, and having a look at the boat, we decided not only that we wanted Carbon Taping in some areas, but that we also wanted to stiffen the hull a bit more, as well, as adding deck supports, and cockpit floor supports. So we've put 100mm Carbon Tape down through the centre, and then resined it on. We've run it along from the bow to the stern, including the crash bulkhead. Our chain plates look and feel as though the Hulk couldn't pull them out, so we're happy with that. Also, our prodder has arrived from C-Tech, so I'll put some

pictures up of that asap.

Discussion and Innovation..

So, 3 weeks since we started and the build is coming along very well.We've filleted all of the interior joins, and glassed/taped all but two/three of them. Today, we put two structural 'stringers' in the transom to back frame area. These are for three purposes;
1) Support for the cockpit floor when it's put on;
2) Give strength to and to stiffen up the hull; and
3) As side supports for the icebox/eski will be located under the cockpit floor near the transom, easily accessible through a hatch in the floor.

Pictures of the Icebox structure..

And of our stiffening along the side-rear panels..

We're looking to try and start laminating the keel blade in the next couple of days, however we're still looking for lead for the bulb, so that presents a bit of an issue.
Look forward to posting more pictures in the coming days.

2 weeks in.

So, we started our build 2 weeks ago, with cutting out parts from templates etc. And now, we've filleted most of the frames in to the hull. and we're finishing them all off and sanding them down in the next couple of days.
We just scarfed the floor of our hull together, but for our sides, we just did the whole stitch-and-glue thing, just resined them together with glass tape etc.Attached are some images of the build so far, which is progressing nice and quickly. We're currently on the prowl for a new rig and sails, not used, so if anyone has any ideas, and you could let us know, that would be great.