Starting to laminate main hull deck

Spent a few more hours with the longboard and decided the hull was fair enough to start fiberglassing.  Did more before that since dad had to work today though.

Last night I added the additional reinforcements specified by Ian in the update for the rudder web.  Also finished the bobstay eye.

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This is the part where I’m going to plug Ian as a designer – he always answers questions promptly (even though they might be trivial) and is quick to send out updates.  During a race last week, one of the first F-22R’s launched had the upper gudgeon crack and ultimately fail.  He addressed this problem by sending the builders an email and a few days ago we received an updated design for the rudder web.  Things like this make me so glad I chose one of his designs.

Anyway – back to the building….

Bogged together enough foam for the rudder blank (a little longer than the off-cuts we have).  One of the options for making the foil is to have the trailing edge bog so it can be sanded down and not worry about de-laminating.  I decided to make the center sheet of foam 1″ shorter than the outside pieces and will fill with bog before we start to shape the foil.  I think this will make it easier in the long run.

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Also added another layer of foam to the exposed areas at the stern.  They are already much stiffer and I’m sure they won’t even move when the outside has fiberglass.

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After dad got home from work, we rolled out and cut one width of exterior fiberglass and started laminating with peel-ply.  Glad we didn’t do both sides of the deck at once because I don’t know where I would have sat up there to get the other side.  Everything seemed to go well though, and hopefully we can get the port side laminated tomorrow.

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