Cockpit floor supports

Two hours today to glue and screw the supports for the cockpit floor stiffeners. I used S/S screws which are quite difficult to use because the Phillips bits eat the stainless steel very easily....

Next thing will be cutting the daggerboard trunk flush with the bottom level.

Total work time to date: 318 hours

August

The majority of Italians go on vacation in August. We are no exception: I spent the first week in France with my family, while Cinzia left two days ago and will stay away for three weeks. So I'll try to do something alone. Yesterday I spent one hour grinding away epoxy blobs to prepare the surfaces to glue and screw lateral supports for the cockpit floor stiffeners: pretty nasty job, but it was impossible to crawl under the hull while we were glueing the cockpit sole. No interesting photos to show...

Total work time to date:  316 hours

Main hull turned

Today, with the help of our friend, colleague and fellow sailor Raffaele and my son Giovanni (who lives in Scotland) we were able to turn  the main hull. We first rolled the hull outside on the cradles, removed those, temporarily laid the hull on two blocks, and rolled it upside down by hand on the flat dollies.

Here's the rest of the turning crew after taking the cradles away

and here's the hull upside down on the dollies. It was easy to do with a crew of 4 but I think it could have been done by two men alone. I estimate the weight at about 60 kg.

Finally, here's the hull back in the shop. A few things will have to be done before putting the bottom panels on, like planing the daggerboard trunk flush with respect to the bottom level.

Dollies done

Two more hours today to finish the two flat wheeled dollies on which the main hull will stay upside down while putting the bottom on.

Total work time to date: 314 hours

FG taping the soles: done

Two hours today to compete the fiberglass taping of the soles/hull corners, with the usual technique. We also taped the inner corners of the transom. Here's a pic showing the cockpit with the fillets done

and here's a view of the final result with the milestone beer

It's still hot here in southern Italy so one has to be fast when working with epoxy. I spent last week in vacation in northern France and the temperature there was 20 degrees Celsius cooler... By the way, the second 15 kg batch of epoxy is gone, so we hit the 30 kg mark today. We already have bought another batch of a different epoxy, slightly cheaper.
We've also cut out all the pieces for two more flat wheeled dollies to support the main hull upside down. We'll turn the hull next time (with some help I think) to glue up the bottom.

Total work time to date: 312 hours

FG taping the soles (2)

Three more hours between sunday night and tonight. It's VERY hot here these days and working with resin and fiberglass is very uncomfortable both in daytime (due to the heat) and in nighttime due to the mosquitos. Anyway, we FG taped the rear sole. We tried another filler called Microballs but the putty comes out dark gray and is quite coarse. Anyway, no big deal. Here's a pic

Total work time to date: 310 hours

FG taping the soles

Last night Cinzia filled the screw holes in the soles with resin. Today we started the FG taping of the soles, beginning with the forward one. We first prepared the surface for bonding with #50 grit sandpaper, and then cleaned everything with a vacuum cleaner and then a rag wetted with water and alcohol. We then  prepared a putty with resin thickened with microspheres and some cabosil, which was spread along the sole/hull corner using a 5 cm diameter plastic ball to make a fillet. At the end, the 10 cm FG tape was put over the fillet. About 4 m of tape were used. Here's a pic

Total work time to date: 307 hours