Second float half removed and frames prepared for third and fourth halves

I was being a little unrealistic in my goals over the Christmas holiday. Well, my goal was to get exactly where we got, but I was secretly hoping for a little more 🙂 Very productive weekend, however.

Today started out with the removal of all screws holding the float half to the battens

This half removed SO much easier than the previous, thanks to putting tape in places that I originally didn’t think epoxy/bog would reach (on deck batten and better on deck-flange mold). I did manage to injure myself twice within a 7 minute span of preparing the float half to be removed. The first was almost like a papercut – was sliding a putty scraper between the fiberglass deck flange and the taped mold plate to break the part away and slipped. Cut the pad of my right hand on the deck-flange some. The next mishap was more fun, as I picked up one of the mold plates, I slipped and gouged a nice chunk of the tip of my index finger on… well, something. not pretty. Fortunately, no blood stained the float 🙂

Put up some 2×4’s on the strongback, located at frames 5 and 9 (the beam bulkhead frames) to act as a rudimentary scaffold that will hold this half in place until the mirror image (float half 3) is ready for joining. You can see the first float half in the background (port outside)

Once the second float half (stbd inside) was suspended over the strongback, we got to work labeling the battens and reversing the form frames

I decided the easiest way to do this would be to plum and brace frames 5 and 9, then attach the keel and deck battens on each frame going out from 5 and 9, pluming them on the way. After that, it took no time to just go down each batten and tighten remaining screws

Repositioned the second float above the strongback for better clearance to the ceiling (had to get more foam and allow the garage door to open). Everything is ready to start planking the third half and move forward to the next bits. Plan is to join this float (starboard float) – and once joined, it will get suspended from the ceiling where the port-outside is (first float half). The port-outside will then get suspended above the strongback as the port-inside is created, then joined. Once both floats are joined, will will take down all form-frames and sit the floats upside-down to complete deck-flanges and beam-mounts. Around that time I’ll order the float hardware and create the decks and finally laminate the outside skin (and start the lovely process of fairing!)

Time spent: 6.5 hours