The last couple of weeks have been quite productive! The lead tip has arrived for the centreboard, so I've finally been able to shape the board, and complete the centreboard case. I had hoped to have the case in the boat by the end of the month, but didn't quite make it. Lots of other bits and pieces were worked on though, so that will speed up the process later in the build...

The hatch bases were sanded, and the centreboard case made ready for epoxy and fibreglass cloth. The 1400mm wide cloth was a perfect fit!

The edges were wet out with a brush, and the weave filled with a plastering spatula. I went back to the brush to make sure that there are no bubbles under the glass. Three coats were applied over the course of the day, to completely fill the weave with unthickened epoxy. The other side of the centreboard case was given the same treatment.

The shelves were cleaned up, and then run through the router to round over the top and bottom edges. The screw holes were filled with untickened epoxy, and once that had soaked in I topped them up with a thickened mixture.

The dodger coaming components were joined. They were pushed together to ensure a tight fit, and then screwed down to the backing board. The next two layers were placed on top, making sure they matched the first layer. Screws were countersunk to allow the next layer of ply to lay flat. Once the pieces had been dry fitted, the top layers were removed, and the fingers coated in unthickened epoxy. Then the components were glued, using thickened epoxy. The predrilled screw holes made aligning everything easy. The second and third layers were glued together on top of the first layer, with sheets of plastic used to stop the layers being glued to each other. A weight was placed over the joins, to stop the finger joints from splaying up or down.

I sanded the rudder foil, and sheathed it in fibreglass cloth.

Both inner sides of the centreboard case have now had four coats of epoxy over the fibreglass cloth.

The bases of the hatches have had all of the screw holes filled with thickened epoxy. The screw holes in the dodger coaming have also been filled with thickened epoxy.

The overhanging flibreglass cloth on the centreboard case has been cutt off and the edges sanded. I then sanded the epoxy where it will be glued to the other half of the centreboard case.

The fibreglass on the rudder foil was trimmed and sanded before additional coats of epoxy were added.

The hatch bases were sanded and then coated in epoxy, leaving the wood bare where they will be glued to the seat sides and tops.

The shelves were rolled with epoxy on all sides.

The rudder foil, hatch bases, and shelves were given another two coats of epoxy the following day.

I drilled the holes for the centreboard pin and the uphaul, using a drill guide to keep everything square. Then, the pivot hole was filled with unthickened epoxy. Once this cures I will drill a narrower hole through the epoxy, creating a bushing that the stainless steel pin will pivot on.

Now that the three layers of the coaming have been glued they could be sanded smooth.

There is an inspection port on the centreboard case, used for access to thread the uphaul through a block and out to the cockpit. I decided to make this in perspex rather than plywood, to keep an eye on the condition of the line. The inspection port was dry fitted, and then removed. A Harken upright block is used for the uphaul. I dry fitted it, and will reinstall it before I glue the centreboard case together.

The rudder cheeks were sanded and screwed together, and the foil was tested for clearance. It was a bit tight, so a layer of fibreglass cloth had to be added to the spacers. Once the cloth had set I trimmed it to the shape of the spacers. The foil has much better clearance now, so it's time to glue the rudder cheeks together. I drilled voids in the HPDE slider, which were filled with epoxy. The epoxy acts as pins to hold the HDPE in place. This is needed, as epoxy doesn't stick to it. The internal squeeze-out was removed with a narrow piece of timber, and a piece of PVC tubing.

The cabin shelves were dry fitted, and held in place with nails. Once glued in place, the temporary screws were removed and the holes were filled with thickened epoxy.

The inside of the cockpit locker hatches have received two coats of epoxy so far.

The top of the hatches will be coated when I cover them with fibreglass cloth.

The lead tip for the centreboard has arrived! Now I can get on with shaping the centreboard and finishing the centreboard case, I traced the profile so that I can make guides for routing the foil. The trailing edge had a slight bend in it, so I bent it back into shape.

The centreboard uphaul block has been fitted. Easier to do now than once the case has been put together.

I made a jig to route the foil. I should have cut shallower passes and progressively deepened the cut. It wasn't successful. The router bit came out a few times and dug into the wood. Eventually I adjusted the jig to fit a circular saw. This was much simpler, and faster as well. Then it was just a matter of chiselling out the waste, and then planing and sanding to finish the shaping. Another pass of the router on both sides to take the centreboard down to the final thickness. I needed to do this to allow for the thickness of the fibreglass sheathing. I've filled all of the gouges, and will sand the centreboard smooth again.

The lead tip was glued in place. Supports were screwed to the centreboard, and shims added to ensure a good fit of the lead to the bottom of the centreboard. When I was happy with the fit I gave the lead a light sand, keying it for adding fibreglass cloth tomorrow. A coat of unthickened epoxy was applied to the timber, and then thickened epoxy added to glue it together.

The final task for the day was covering the cockpit hatches with fibreglass cloth. These will be trimmed tomorrow, and more epoxy added, to fill the weave.

The centreboard was sheathed in fibreglass cloth. A trailing edge of thickened epoxy will be added, to be shaped to reduce flutter when the board is down. A strip of wood covered in tape and hot glued to the trailing edge forms the support for this epoxy. The epoxy on the trailing edge will be shaped before coating the other side of the centreboard.

A second coat was applied to the cockpit hatches. Fibreglass will be trimmed to edges and sanded smooth before the third coat.

The fibreglass edges on the first side of the centreboard were trimmed and sanded before the board was flipped over and glass applied to the second side. Glass for the second side was measured, cut, and coated. For this side I cut the glass to the centreline of the board while it was wet, and cleaned the scissors in epoxy.

I dry fitted the centreboard into the case, and made sure that the 3/8" 316 stainless steel pin is aligned properly. A foam bumper was added to the top of the case. This will be fixed in place with screws, washers and epoxy. Spacers were hot glued into the case to ensure that the ply doesn't warp when the case is glued into the hull.

A bead of epoxy is squeezed along the centreboard case timbers. Ziplock bags are great for this. The epoxy is spread to ensure that there are no gaps along the seams. At long last, the side of the centreboard case is screwed into position. Once the epoxy has cured I will remove the screws and fill the holes. There was lots of squeeze-out, which is exactly what is wanted. The excess epoxy is scraped off immediately. Much better to do it now than sanding it later.

I've run a strip of fibreglass tape along the leading edge of the centreboard, to reinforce it.

I had to cut out the extra hatch in the starboard cockpit side, matching it to the piece I'd already cut from the seat top.