Where has the month gone?

These past few weeks, I have felt there was not much forward progress. No large panels glued up, no bulkheads appeared, just trimming, routing and a bunch of sanding. Detail sanding this, that and the other thing, over and over and over. The plan is that all the time spent sanding NOW will hopefully save thrice as much time versus when everything is all assembled and hard to get to.

I did find time to build the navigation station, galley unit, cut in the companionway and “D1” hatches, and build frames for all the hatches and mushroom vents. I also bought, then cut and scarfed all the stringer lumber. And just before I went to write this post, the last box of CNC cut wood arrived from B & B Yachts containing massive oak for the keel stringers, mast support, and beautifully-shaped dagger boards + rudder! The  pre-shaping by B & B will save hours of hand grinding/sanding on the foils. Now I’ll let some pictures do the talking.

Keel in spray booth

First coat epoxy paint

Keel epoxied

Galley/Nav Station stitch-and-glue

S & G step 1

S & G step 2

S & G step 3

S & G step 4 outside

S Frame 1

Nav Station

S Frame 2

Cabin side ports

Milling lumber for stringers

Milling

Scarf joint jig

Scarf joint

Scarf joint clamped

CNC shaped rudder

B&B Yachts hardwood kit

FULL AHEAD

I have had the CNC kit just under one month. I have built ALL the frames, bulkheads, and almost all the flat panels. Why build the flat panels beforehand? Smooth bends! Pre-building one large flat smooth sheet will eliminate “hard spots” where panels join. NO hard spots means less grinding, fairing, and sanding (are we not going to do enough sanding already?)

Hull 113 and hull 79 are sharing the shop/glue tables, so we trade off everyday or so, to keep both boats moving forward. One will glue up a bulkhead the other a flat panel, then we switch places. I feel that very very soon our boats will go from “IKEA flatpack boats” to 3D on the strong back looking like a boat, boats!

Frame "S" + Dome

Deck (upside down)

Flat Panels

Bunk Risers

 

Hull Panel

Currently, there is NO downtime. You can ALWAYS trim/route/sand/epoxy fill something. Later on, I may have to wait for epoxy to cure. Even before the kit arrived, there was work to do, the keel to build, tiller, spreaders and bow sprit to craft, classified ads to search/parts to source. If you want to relax and take it easy, there will be plenty of time for that ONCE you’re sailing. Right now it is “FULL AHEAD” to get to the start line.

Parts Ready to Install

Fully Committed

New Year, And I am ready to tear into this project. Finally most of the parts are gathered in one place, and about the same time. First to arrive was a box of epoxy filler, then the wind vane was delivered at the same time as the keel came back from galvanizing shop. A day later the boat kit was forked lifted out of an 18 wheeler, I signed a lease on a shop, found insurance on the shop, received keys on January 1st and AND.

Boat in a box

Two boats in two boxes

Wham! I have hit the ground running, I moved everything into the new shop, unpacked/organized the wood, Bought the timber for the strong back, and started gluing up the first frame/bulkhead. The CNC kit is beautifully cut, and it started getting glued together right out of the crate (THANK YOU B & B!)  Frame A is glued up, and most of D-1 both pictured below.

Organizing kit

Moments until epoxy

D1

Frame A

Frame A, detail

Frame A, detail

Dry fit, D1

D1, aft

The NAME THE BOAT game is moving along, and the several more new submissions are now uploaded to that tab. Remember a free half hull to whomever wins the name/color scheme for the “life size” boat contest.