MARCH 2007.

46 hours...

These past 2 months I have been working on the fittings, centerboard, rudder head, pintle+gudgeons(in carbon) and blade, engine mount (and purchase...) and trampolines.

Diamond spreaders made in carbon. The fit is really nice, I just have to rivet them in place after a nice coat of white paint. There is a layer of fiberglass to isolate the carbon from the aluminum mast:

Bagging the 2 layers of corecell to make the centerboard blank. There are two 400gsm layers of glass between the 2 halves:

Shaping the foam blank using a template and a sanding board. At first I shaped only one side and left the other side flat:

Cutting a hole for the high density filler where the pivot will be. The pivot pin will be a hollow 1" fiberglass tube:

Carbon uni on the shaped side of the foam blank. 2 layers of 7781 glass will cover this before the vacuum bag:

Bagging the first side only. The other flat side of the foam serves as a reference to keep the board flat:

Bag removed. The shape of the core really stands out. You can see the method I used on the trailing edge:

Family picture! :

Bagging the final laminations of glass over the whole board in one shot:

Bogging of the board. This step was actually fun because the working position is very good and the surface is small. Nothing compared to fairing a hull or float..:

Starting the rudder blade foam blank. I am using a different shape than what is shown on the plans. Since I redesigned the rudder head I had to alter the top of the rudder blade. I took the opportunity to"modernized" the rest of the blade at the same time, while keeping the edges straight to ease the shaping:

Mold for the composite rudder head. I used 2 layers of 5/8" mdf covered with packaging tape and a piece of bent acrylic:

Laminating carbon cloth on the mold. I built the thickness up to about 1/4" where the pivot bushings will be located:

Ready to de-mold. The part came off the mold easily, with a very glossy finish on the inside surface. Once it is trimmed to final shape and tried on the boat (with tiller and rudder blade) I will decide if I need to laminate more carbon:

Expensive and heavy... about 40$ per pound... Long shaft with low pitch prop, very well made. The plans call for 4HP but all 1 cylinder engines up to 6 HP weigh the same so I went for the extra 2 HP:

Trial mounting of the engine. The plans are useless for this so I improvised the bracket design:

Verifying that the engine can be raised and lowered correctly and that there is enough clearance for the tiller:

I used blue masking tape to mark the outline of the nets and take measurements. I also verified what happens when I fold the boat. Unlike the Farriers, I will have to untie the nets along the beams in order to fold the boat. This is a result of a different folding geometry. I ordered my nets from Sunrise if Florida. They will be black offshore open netting:

I am getting there! These boats are very complicated but I can now prepare the next sailing season, finally!

;-)