As planned, we removed the port side float hull from the form frame. It looked very good in general. Planking was very fair, except for some areas at the aft end in the tight bend from side to deck. I have some ideas for improving the quality of the bend that I will try on the next half. In any case, it will be a very nice hull with minimal fairing required.
Here you can see the port hull in storage on a new set of racks I built on Friday. I attached these racks to the table and toaster oven, so it was quite easy and quick to finish. The boat house is starting to fill up, maybe I should have gone for the 22' wide building instead of the 18'.
We spent some time looking at the quality of both hulls and finally decided not to rebuild the first half. Although not quite as fair as the second half, it is still quite good and I don't think it will take too much filler to make it fair. And I think both halves have very good structural integrity. The only thing I am particularly disappointed with in the first half is some sloppy lay up on the gussets at the forward bulkhead. We also weighed each hull and found they were within a pound or two, at about 40 lbs each. So that was something of a relief, and we won't have to worry about heeling to starboard.
So, with that decision made, we are moving on to the next step in the float construction. Namely, we reversed the form frame so we can start the other two halves. I know, looks a lot like the previous form frame. In any case, I was afraid it would take several days to finish putting the frame back together, but it went much quicker. I was able to finish it in a day, and I even added a few extra battens to the form. So now we can start planking the third half. The schedule is to have the third half planked by next weekend, and glassed the following weekend. Then we will be ready to mate the first two halves into something that almost looks boat-like. So exciting times soon to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment