At long last, sealant has arrived to install the final portlight to make this hull weather tight.
The planed lumber provided material to complete the third crossbeam. The beam is about to have the foreground fairing epoxied onto the beam face. At this point the interior surfaces have received two epoxy coats, fillets on all joins and the areas to be joined are ... sanded.
The bows received some new bling in the form of chocks complementing the cleat. The chock fasteners screw into the shear stringer. As will all such fastenings, an oversize hole is drilled. filled with epoxy and later drilled out to accept the screw fastener. Water and wood should not meet with this arrangement.
It is so dicey drilling next to an edge like this that a drilling jig seems wise. The first hole is drilled using the jig and then a transfer punch is inserted through the jig and into the hole. The "pinned" jig precisely locates the second drilled hole. To the right of the pinned jig is the jig used with smaller diameter drill bits to drill out the epoxy filled holes to accept screws.
The port hull was the first to see the light of day. My yellow wheeled dolly is a bit over loaded as the axel is bending so that both wheels were canted in towards the top. This is the money shot for me as it is the first time I've been able to stand back and get a good overall view of the hull.
Beam Landing Pads
The dolly axel received some stiffening before the starboard hull was rolled out. The distorted dolly wheels are at or near the limit of what they can support. A fair amount of effort went into leveling and positioning the hulls. A water level (water filled clear tubing) proved to be very effective for this task. I was able to borrow a laser level to find my work and the laser agreed.
The hulls and crossbeams are gathered here to be joined. The beams are lashed to inboard and outboard hull sides. The curving decks must be fitted with beam landing pads to transfer lashing compression loads between the beams and the hulls. The landing pads need features that prevent the beams moving fore and aft or side to side.
Measurements between the beam and hull indicated compound angled cuts on the landing pad raw stock. I found that making a shallow cut all around the cut's permitter helps to guide the hand saw on these tricky cuts.
A fair number of parts were required to mount the crossbeams. The mounting parts above have just been fiberglassed. There are many sharp edges on these parts that the fiberglass cannot bend around. The fabric tends to stretch and move around as the epoxy is applied. This feature makes cutting fabric to an exact size to butt up against an adjacent fiberglass face can be a futile exercise. The sharp angle faces must be fiberglassed one at a time before continuing to adjacent faces.
The next day the excess fiberglass edges are trimmed and it is time for another round of fiberglassing. Some of these items took three rounds of fiberglassing to complete.
The plans do not provide great landing pad details so a person must improvise. Above is the underside end of the mast crossbeam. The raw wood face with lettering is the landing pad face that will be epoxied to the hull. The landing pad and the beam's locating features are separated by 3/16" thick neoprene to prevent the wooden parts from working against each other. The locating faces are angled so the beam and hull will mate and de-mate readily. This landing pad resists fore and aft motion as well as beam motion in the outboard direction.
I'm impressed if you were able to spot any gingerbread crumbs. There are cleats on the bow and stern as well as on the ends of two beams. Did you spot the bow chocks? Solar powered ventilators are found forward and aft of the cleated beams. I still think these ventilators are a bit garish with the optional shiny stainless steel shell. I attempted to remove the garish shell but found that it was adhered to the white shell underneath. I may not learn to love it, but I can learn to live with it.
The Future is Electric
Electric propulsion is an emerging trend in sailing vessels. I'm embracing this future. My electric outboards ordered in middle November have arrived late in January after the Christmas shipping break and the Department of Fisheries got their fees figured out. These three horse power Epropulson motors will be installed in lockers under the cockpit seats. The motor's overall height must be reduced to accomplish this. A great height reduction is to relocate the clip-on floating batteries to mounting locations within the lockers. It is also necessary to also remove the black battery clip-on fixture at the motor's top to gain the needed clearance. Initial examinations suggest this will work out very well. The shop is filled with the new yellow wheeled dolly, crossbeams, lumber and an increasing state of disorder. This disorder now creeps into my living space as there is no room for the outboards in the shop.
These motors will recharge the batteries while under sail. The motors may be retracted, to reduce drag, once a charge is achieved. A folding solar array is offered as an accessory to charge/supplement the battery. Two motors will enable the boat to spin within its' own length. This maneuverability is highly desirable to negotiate the 90° canal turn to reach the bay. I need only to press an on button rather than repeatedly pulling a start cord to get going. Gasoline fires and engine noise will not be a possibility. These outboards are substantial and well made. I'm happy and excited to arrive at this arrangement.
