Starboard float joining

A very exciting day, though not *quite* as complete as I really wanted (what can I say – tired, sore and hungry… it was quittin’ time)

Started today off with the surprise of a third float half that had the keel foam cut and sanded and the deck flange trimmed

This meant we could go straight to work getting the half suspended above into place and start marking areas that needed to be trimmed for a proper fit. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as we feared and after rotating the half up and down a few times (I think 6 by the time we figured out what was going on at the transom) – we were ready to proceed

Once we figured out how best to clamp things down, the keel foam was bogged and put into place

The transom was a little distorted, so it took some creative engineering. Fortunately, as much as I wanted to trim the excess past the transom bulkhead to see the final shape, I decided it would be better to wait until it was stable. This proved wise in this instance, as I was able to cut a hole in the scrap piece and use it to pull the transom into better alignment

With the halves now essentially joined, it was time to tape all the bulkheads into place. This went fairly easy with the exception of the transom (my arms were too short to get the area at the keel – but dad managed to after making a tool consisting of a 1×1 and a plastic filleting stick). The bow bulkhead… well…. let’s just say it’s quite the interesting fit (as you’ll see by the picture)

(aft beam bulkhead)

(transom bulkhead)

(shroud bulkhead)

(bow bulkhead)

For some reason I didn’t take a picture of the forward beam bulkhead taped in place… it looks the same as the rest, only different. 🙂

Had a little epoxy and time left over, so I ran the first piece of keel-tape, between the forward beam and shroud bulkheads. Didn’t do the others yet, as we called it a day here.

Last two pictures are as things sit on the “uneventful” side of the mold today.

If you’re wondering about things laying on the hull – we needed some weight there after bogging and didn’t have enough clamps to go around. 🙂

I was hoping to have all the taping done today, so next time we could release this float from the mold, but it was a long day. Next on the agenda is to tape the last few keel seams and pop this float out. The first half will then come down and we’ll build the fourth and final float half to join. At this rate, I’m hoping in the next 3-4 weekends we’ll be at the point where the form-frames will come down and the floats will be side-by-side for the remainder of the internal structure (beam bulkhead webs), build the decks, then external quick-fairing and glassing. Should be an interesting next month or two.

Time spent: 9.5 hours