Beam Bulk/H and Carbon Anchor fitting

After the interior lamination is complete, the next task is the positioning and fitting of the carbon anchor assembly for the folding system, and then beam bulheads on top off them.

Aft beam bulkhead with side panels fitted.

Fwd Beam bulkhead, and post curing the anchor assembly after the additional laminates.

Heavy laminations over the anchor assembly. Very tricky to get the cloth to go down inbetween the slots without leaving air seams, and also to maintain the correct fiber orientation. I ended up splitting each layer into 3 pieces with additional patches over cuts and pleats.

Pre fitting foam for the foam/filler fill between the anchors. Then a few more laminates over this and then thankfully finished. A lot of work involved in fitting these 2 bulkheads, same job has to be done 4 times (either side of eachbulk/h, and made worse by hours of  knee cracking squatting on a sloping hull side.)

But beginning to look much more like a boat at last

Planking cont...

Hull planking for this side now finished. I opted for 8" wide strips ( 6 per 4 x 8 ft sheet of foam) but it does mean a lot of seams to be filled/sanded flush.

I am hoping it will pay off in less filling and fairing being required later on.

I decided to use the dry lay up method this time. Partly because I am single handed on this project, and partly because some of the stitched fabrics are very awkward to deal with. Almost as soon as it is cut from the main  roll it seems intent on distorting and generally destroying itself! And the more you handle it the worse it gets. Trying to position it accurately onto a wet surface makes things even more tricky

Cunning device for positioning cloth with minimal hand contact. Partly successful. ( If you just let the roll drop the cloth bridges the hollows and then need  repositioning, causing more distortion) . The hull shape causes the fibre orientation to change a bit as the cloth goes down toward the gunwhale. I decided the keel area was probably the most important area to have correct.

Ready for resin.( I shall flip the overlaps back as I spread to help to get the resin right the way through the double layers to the foam)

After a long cold winter and having to move location (fortunately within the same building) I have finally made a start on the second hull half.  On the whole the first hull half shape is pretty good, although there are a few uneven patches, where the foam strips did not lie tightly against the batons in the original mold, particularly on the tight corners down by the keel. I have opted to leave the outside of the first half unglassed for now and will do it after joining.

Mold re-assembled ready for planking, (and an indication of the final hull size and shape beam wise).

Fitting the Core-Cell strips. Core-Cell A500 seems to have been discontinued and is now repalced by M80. It seems to be a tougher foam and does not thermoform as easily.

Tight corners down toward the keel. Needs quite a lot of heating and some serious muscle to bend. Difficult not to scorch the foam.

View from the rear.