Another three hour session, starboard cabin roof section all glued into position. Exactly the same routine as yesterday, exactly the same amount of time taken, pleasingly, exactly the same result. Now looking forward to planing, sanding and fairing them both in so that they really become part of the hulls.

Propped and Glued Up

Glued In Position

Business is demanding time from me again but a three hour session today was enough for me to get the cabin roof section glued into position. It went pretty smoothly although I did have to give some thought to how I could hold the roof section clear of the tumblehomes and bulkheads whilst I applied the glue and then get it dropped into the right position first time. I managed it with three strategically placed wooden props that, when pushed forward allowed the roof section to drop just right. Yet another example of how working on your own demands ingenuity sometimes. It was great to get the comment from Jacques about his enjoyment of closing the hulls, I’m itching to get there!

Dropped & In Position

Roof Section Propped, Glue Applied

After removing the temporary holding screws from the tumblehomes glued yesterday ( I needed a mole wrench on a couple that I’d managed to epoxy in!), It was out with the belt sander and I spent a dusty hour getting the tumblehomes sanded to something like a nice fit, then, after key grinding all the contact points I grabbed two volunteers (Thanks Rich & Charlie) and got the cabin roof section lifted up into position. The rest of the session was spent planing and sanding to get a nice dry fit and it’s now ready to glue. It’ll be great to get these two big cabin roof sections firmly in place and I’m enjoying the feeling of progress I’ve been getting these last couple of weeks, it seems a long time since I felt I was winning!

Portside Cabin Roof Dry Fitted

Ok not strictly true…. more a rectangular hole in a slightly oval hole but either way it describes what I’ve been trying to do today, namely join up the large curved main cabin roof with the small curved cabin roof. Done correctly this leaves a perfectly rectangular opening sitting within side decks that match the curvature of the hull. Sounds complicated but actually it’s fairly simple although I confess to making a bit of a meal out of it today. I blame the heat (27′C today), I’m never going to complain too much about it given how little we get in this country but when you’re dripping with sweat, holding onto a pot of rapidly heating epoxy and struggling to get things in the right position it’s tempting!

Side Decks 1st Stage Glued

One thing I have realised today is that despite the long hours I spent last year trying to get the tumblehomes right, I still failed. For anyone following in my footsteps (Adrian), make a big note somewhere – Make the curved cabin sections first and then cut the tumblehomes, not the other way round. I will have to re-cut at least some of them and that will be the third attempt, wasted ply and wasted time but no point beating myself up about it, these things will happen on a build of this scale.

Anyway I eventually got the first stage of the side decks glued up in the right place and, as always, now I know what I’m doing, the other hull will be easier.

Today I continued work on the second main cabin roof section and got the polystyrene sandwich material all glued into place and weighted. That’s broken the back of it now and I’ll try and get the final layer of ply in place before the weekend’s out

My last work session before our 10 day break to Portugal I’ve completed stage 3 and got the final sheet of ply glued into my first main cabin deck section so when I get back I’ll have a completed section ready to try. I’ll be using the down time over the next few weeks to get my head together a little and start some serious planning with time lines so that I stay on track for the May 2012 launch. I’ll post stuff when I can (internet access permitting). See you in a few weeks!

Lessons learned making the forward cabin decks are paying benefits now with the construction of the main cabin decks. I have the construction broken down into three stages.

1. Lay the first sheet of ply into the mould and glue the transverse strengtheners
2. Glue the longitudinal strengtheners and the polystyrene sandwich material – Apply Weights
3. Glue the final layer of ply – Apply Weights

I’ve completed stage 2 of the port hull main cabin deck today and hope to get stage 3 completed before we go away to Portugal .

Longitudinal strengtheners fitted & glue spread

Polystyrene In Place

Polythene, Ply & Weights Applied

Coffee fuelled study

I spent a lot of time with the plans and a scale rule today trying to figure out the sizes for the deck panels that cover the main cabins. There are four panels on each hull. The largest ones cover the forward part of the cabins, over the dining area on the port hull and over the double berth on the starboard hull. There’s are two smaller sections at the aft ends over the galley and navigation area and then finally there’s the four side decks that connect them all  together. The forward and aft sections have cutouts to receive the upper cabin sides later and they needed a bit of working out but other than that they are reasonably easy. Same goes for the aft sections. The problem I had was that no measurements are given for any of these sections, it’s necessary to study the plans carefully, scale off from the drawings (staying aware that these can only be considered as approximate) and then checking against the actual hulls. All very taxing for someone with my level of brainpower! I’d planned to cut out all the pieces needed to make all the sections but I decided to hold off with the side decks until I can dry fit the forward and aft deck sections. Things will look a lot clearer then and I can take actual measurements rather than guess. Having worked things out I set to and cut out the 8 4mm ply pieces and then made a start on construction of the first forward section

4 Aft Deck Sections Cut

Starting The First Forward Section

Solid Timber Fillet Faired In

I squeezed in a short session today, another holiday weekend just past, a 10 day break to Portugal starting next week and my own business to look after mean that time is short right now. No point stressing though I know that things will pick up pace by the end of June and I’m still on target. So today I concentrated on more sanding and fairing of the forward cabin decks, all pretty simple stuff really but quite satisfying. I also shaped in the Douglas Fir blocks that I’d glued in at the forward ends of the tumble homes. The plans suggest cutting small pieces of ply to cover the gap (the tumble homes are cut from standard 2.44m (8ft) sheets of ply but the decks are a bit over 2.5m long so they stop short of the forward beam troughs). I decided to glue solid pieces of timber in there instead and then shape them afterwards. Better job all round methinks.

No photo today not much to see, but I have worked hard getting the decks and tumblehomes ready for the glass tape reinforcing stage. I’ve planed, sanded and filled and rounded off all the edges. Hard dusty work but very satisfying to see it all coming together.