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

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.