Thursday, February 5, 2009

Nearing the half way point on the hull.

I have been beating myself pretty hard on this lately. I really want to make my mid- to late-March deadline, so I have been working till about 0' dark-thirty every night trying to get the hull ready for glass. Unfortunately, I will be traveling for a week with my day job, so that adds extra pressure to stay on schedule. This series of pictures shows where I was when I started on Sunday night and goes through Wednesday morning.


The process has gotten considerably slower since I started turning around the bilge. The strips are under a lot more stresses being twisted and bent in many different directions as they are installed. Having to hold them in with wedges and clamps until the glue sets takes much more time.

The hull is very tight. I have looked and can find no gaps. I anticipate that if there are any gaps in this hull, they will be along the centerline, but I'm pretty sure that I can avoid all of that with patience and very close attention to detail. The fitting of the strips for the other half of the bottom of the hull will be more like joinery work and that is something that I really enjoy doing with hand tools.

These two pictures (above and below) are where I stopped working on the hull on Tuesday. Clamps, wedges and tape were all left in place for the night to let the glue do its work.



This last picture shows the hull the next morning after I removed the tape and wedges. At this time, I am about 9 strips away from finishing the first half of the hull bottom.***

***I don't have pictures because I need batteries in my camera, but last night I was able to get seven more strips on and now am only two strips away from center. I will get those on tonight.
Tomorrow, I am only working a half-day at my day job and I will be able to cut the centerline and start the other half of the "football". I will have fresh batteries in the camera and get that documented. Then I will work all day Saturday until I have to get to the airport for my trip Sunday morning.


Anyway, I hope to be pretty close to fairing the hull when I return and getting ready for 'glass by the last week of this month. Stay tuned!

1 comment:

  1. The hull looks like it's coming together nicely. Can't wait to see it when all the strips are in place.

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