Forward sole glued

Two hours today (hitting the 300 hours of work!) to glue the forward sole panel in the main hull. We first prepared the panel preboring 3 mm holes for the screws, sanding and cleaning the gluing surface

We then prepared about 400 grams of thickened resin which was spread on the gluing lines, and then screwed everything down.

Next time we will remove the screws, make a round fillet and FG tape the sole/hull corner all around.

Total work time to date: 300 hours!

Ready to glue the sole

Four hours of work today. It's getting hotter here in southern Italy, so a new fridge is mandatory now.
We worked with rasp, Surform and sandpaper to fair and round the daggerboard trunk edges at the sole (to be fair Cinzia did most of the work). Here's how it looked before

and here it is, almost done

We the covered the edge with fiberglass tape and resin. Going around the corners is not easy, but we trust much in fairing with putty...

We also filled the screw holes in the rudder plank, and we sanded and cleaned all sole supports in the main hull in preparation for the sole glueing session.

Total work time to date: 298 hours

Cockpit sole, daggerboard trunk and rudder blade

Five hours of work today. We first cut to size the 3 sole stiffeners. Here's Cinzia sitting in the main hull and still smiling before being buried under the sole to check

Then, we glued the daggerboard trunk and the stiffeners to the low side of the sole, making epoxy fillets all around. This took quite a bit of measuring, checking, planing and the like.

We were so enthusiastic to work with epoxy that we decided to laminate the rudder blade (same thickness of the daggerboard)

Several clamps were used on the sole, so we had to use more sheetrock screws to squeeze everything together.The protruding part of the core layer will be cut flush when the resin sets.

Total work time to date: 294 hours

Coating, and daggerboard

Today many (including us) took a day off since tomorrow is a holiday in Italy (Republic Day). We call this "ponte" (literally "bridge"). So we could work 4 hours at the boat.

First, we cut the centerboard hole in the centrale sole panel.

We also gave two coats of resin to the other two sole panels and to the daggerboard trunk

We then laminated the centerboard plank from 3 layers of plywood (15-6-15 mm) glued with thickened resin. We used sheetrock screws to squeeze the sandwich along the central line, and a liberal amount of clamps all around.

Total work time to date: 289 hours

Glassing the central sole

Just one hour today to fiberglass the central sole panel, which will be the cockpit floor.
Here we are cutting the fg to size

and here is the finished product

One thing: make sure that the surface is CLEAN before laying the cloth on it. Every little thing will stand out proud after wetting the cloth, even the smallest wood chip or brush bristle, and removing it is a hassle.

Total work time to date: 285 hours.

Short circuit and appendages

Last saturday we were unable to open the garage door, due to a short circuit which destroyed the fridge (so no cold beer anymore for now). The power was put on again in the afternoon.

Late this afternoon we spent two hours to cut the various plywood layers to laminate the centerboard and the rudder. They are pretty large indeed: the daggerboard is 40x120 cm, the rudder about 30x125 cm, both 3.5 cm thick. We'll laminate two 15 mm layers with a 6 mm core.

Total work time to date: 284 hours

Daggerboard trunk done, and more

Four hours of work today. First of all we attached 4 plywood pads at the hull sides to provide glueing surface for the support of the transverse sole stiffeners. The picture below shows two of those pads. The daggerboard will be placed between those two vertical side stiffeners, of course along the hull centerline.

We then closed the daggerboard trunk, attaching the other side with epoxy and bronze ring nails. Here's Cinzia epoxy filleting the corner at the newly glued side.

We then glued the two reinforcement cleats at the top, which will be supporting the sole panel.

We then gave two coats of resin to the bottom side of the sole panels.

Total work time to date: 282 hours