Finally back to building

After some schedule conflicts between me and dad, different commitments and a few stints of traveling out of town for work (with more coming over the course of the next month) – we are finally back to some boat building! 🙂

In my absence, dad has managed to finish planking the hull half from the gunwhale to the keel and we’re just about finished smoothing out the bog…. Am hoping to start putting some fiberglass on later this evening or tomorrow when the temperature gets stable.

Ordered some more fiberglass cloth this week, as we’re getting a little low due to excess waste on both our parts. Hopefully we have enough of the B cloth to get a good portion of this hull half laminated. Also ordered some 45-45 cloth to make it easier (and less wasteful) for parts that require it. I just hate having to cut up the 90-90 on the bias, as it makes a supreme mess and is extremely wasteful.

Carbon fiber is still pretty expensive right now (thanks Boeing!) – so I’m going to hold off on purchasing for a while and play the odds. It’ll either go up or down (hopefully down), but don’t need it for those bits right now anyway. If I see a sale for exactly what is needed I’ll scoop them up, but the UD I have from the chainplates is enough to do the bow web and bob-stay, which is all that’s needed for the main hull joining.

Also received the fabricated parts book, and the mast step is truly a work of art. I have a friend with a 3-axis CNC mill, so hopefully I’ll be able to make some of the parts myself – but we shall see. The last time I spoke with him the X-axis motor blew and I’m not sure if he’s replaced it yet…

Will post some pictures either later tonight or tomorrow night of main hull progress and add up the hours spent off and on over the past few weeks to the total.

She’s finally starting to take (a very nice) shape.