The weather has been lousy today, very heavy cloud and regular heavy rain. The temperature was high though and very humid with it. I put in a seven hour session and I think I’m going to pay for it later! Seven hours of climbing up and down step ladders, clambering around, in and on the hulls, handling heavy power tools and general lifting definitely constitutes a good workout. I was dripping!
My hard labour has been worth it though as I have finished the two inboard edges of cabin roof/tumblehome joint. I deliberately chose the inboard edges as they will be virtually hidden when the decks are fitted so I was free to master the finishing techniques without stressing too much about final appearance. that said they’ve turned out OK.
The building plans show this edge made fair with an epoxy fillet on the underside of the overhanging cabin roof. I didn’t like that idea for two reasons. 1. I wasn’t confident I could achieve a really nice finish just using epoxy 2. My overhangs turned out a little small in places. What I decided to do instead was glue a small softwood half round section along the joint to even out the inconsistencies and give something to work to for the final epoxy finish. First job I had to do though was to cut out the cabin roof sections over the two mastbeam troughs. My Fein Multimaster made relatively easy work of that job. next it was out with the plane and the sander so that I could blend in the line of the cabin roof edges to those of the tumblehomes and then out with the router to round off the top edges of the cabin roof. All very satisfying. After sanding and preparing the joint edges I was able to glue on the half round strips, adjusting them to a fair curve by eye and then temporarily holding them in place with small screws.
Day of rest tomorrow, I need it!

Port Inboard Edge View 1

Port Inboard Edge View 2

Starboard Hull Edge Finished

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

Unbelievably its been over a year since I originally started on construction of the tumblehomes, talk about dragging a job out! Today though I re-cut and re-fitted the ones on the port hull and they are now ready to glue. It was all relatively painless and if I knew then what I know now I wouldn’t have wasted so much time. But there’s no point moaning, they’re nearly done now and I can move on to more exciting things. Despite being on my own today I managed to manhandle the completed cabin deck section down onto the floor so that I could sand it and get the first coat of epoxy on. If I can keep this pace up I should have both deck sections glued in place next week and I can make a start on the raised doghouse sides.

Starboard Hull View

Both Hulls Growing

Deck Section Halfway Down

I’m keen to get these tumblehomes and cabin tops done as soon as possible and today I was able to move over the the port hull and make a start joining the two sections of cabin top. Things went far easier than with the starboard hull because the tumblehomes weren’t in the way meaning I could concentrate on getting the contact points at all the bulkheads spot on. Again I took my time, checking all the levels, before gluing and clamping the four long connecting stringers and the two small transverse blocks that sit on top of the mast beam trough. To finish off I key sanded the edges of the starboard cabin top then grabbed a couple of volunteers to help me lift it back onto the hull ready for final positioning (Thanks to Richard and Malcolm).

Cabin Top Sections Connected, Glued & Clamped

I put in a 7 hour day today and feel like I  made some really good progress but I’m worn out tonight, as is my belt sander which finally gave up the ghost today after many many hours of use. It’s an indication of the scale of work involved with a project like this that you wear out decent power tools before it’s finished. It has to be excepted though and I’ll be shopping for a new one tonight.

Nice Sanded Tumblehomes

Before the belt sander gave up I managed to get most of the glued tumblehomes on the starboard hull sanded smooth and I was able to finish the rest with the orbital sander so I now have a nice set of well fitted smooth tumblehomes to admire. They’re much appreciated after all the trouble they caused. I then carried on with the orbital sander and got the cabin roof sanded back before applying the second coat of epoxy. As my mind wandered whilst rollering it on I wondered how many nights I’ll spend lying in the bunk looking up at it!

Cabin Roof Second Coated

Portside Cabin Roof In Position

Once this was out of the way I turned my attention to the port hull, and, having learned my lesson on the starboard hull, the first thing I did was to remove the tumblehomes so that I could concentrate on getting the cabin roof sections perfectly in position. As I discovered before, it’s far easier to fit the tumblehomes when you have something to fit to! After a little bit of trimming to get the forward and aft sections sitting nicely onto the bulkheads I set about using scrap timber to support the sections in the right positions to allow me to construct the connecting sides in situ. I took my time, checking with the levels and am now happy I’m ready to go with the side decks next time.

A six hour session today and I cracked on with final fit and gluing of the tumblehomes on the starboard hull, all went relatively painlessly apart from one that got away from me as I was offering it up and in the process of trying to catch it I got epoxy mix on my arm, neck and forehead. I don’t recommend this as acetone isn’t the ideal thing to use to wash with! I also sanded, filled and first coated the underside of the cabin roof section. All in all a very satisfying session, not least because I’m that much closer to finishing these bloody tumblehomes!

Cabin Roof Filled & First Coated

Starboard Tumblehomes - Done!

A good work session today working on the two side decks of the starboard hull connecting the large curved forward section of main cabin roof to the small aft section. I’d successfully joined glued the four longitudinal stringers and the lower pieces of ply the other day but there was a fair bit of cleaning up to do and I spent a good deal of time check measuring and taking levels to make sure everything was right. I had to trim a couple of partial bulkhead tops to get everything spot on and then drop in two little transverse blocks next to the inboard beam trough as this will be cut out later. Then it was a case of cutting and dry fitting the polystyrene sandwich material before gluing and clamping everything together. All in all a pleasing bit of progress. Apologies for the lack of photos, I forgot to take the camera. I’ll post some tomorrow.

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.

Nothing terribly exciting to report today, I just glued the final layer of ply to finish the sandwich roof section for the starboard main cabin. That just leaves the two narrow aft sections to make and I’m finished with the mould. (I have to make another one with different radius for the cabin tops).
I aim to get all the remaining pieces made this week so that I can assemble them all and start closing in the main cabins, looking forward to that!