Time flies when you're having fun! So much has happened with the boat over the last couple of weeks!

Highlights include:

• The water ballast tank has been completed, and the cockpit sole installed
• A false floor has been made for the cabin, which lifts up to make the bunks wider
• A folding ladder has been modified and temporarily fitted
• An outboard motor bracket has been tested on the transom
• The cockpit lockers have been installed, and the third locker has had insulation added, to turn it into an icebox
• The back of the cabin is in place, and the stringers supporting the cockpit seats have been glued into the bulkheads
• The cockpit seats have been dry fitted, and will be installed in the coming week

Looking forward to the next month, when the bulk of the work on the top of the hull should be complete!

 

The fibreglass right-angled braces that will support the cockpit floor above the water ballast tank were measurerd.

The fibreglass tape that will support the baffles in the water ballast tank was wet out prior to installation. I'm using up some left over tape from a previous boat. The plans call for slightly wider tape.

I moved the wetted out tape to plastic sheeting to transfer it to the hull. This way I can work on several edges without having to get out of the boat.

Once the epoxy has been applied to the tape, as long as it is spread out it takes much longer to "kick off", giving me much more time to work with it.

The fibreglass and epoxy right-angled sections had to be sanded, to key in a surface that the epoxy would adhere to.

I spread thickened epoxy along one side of the right-angled brackets and placed them in the approximate locations.

Strips of timber resting on the tops of the baffles are used to set the top edge of the fibreglass supports. Spring clips are used to keep the supports level with the top of the baffles.

Thin strips of timber are used as springs to force the fibreglass against the plywood baffles.

The following morning I removed the clips and scaffolding.

Dry fitting the cockpit sole showed that it was a bit tight forward, so I marked the tight areas, and planed them down a little.

I had a some of the right angle fibreglass left over, so I cut it down and used it to strengthen the edges that aren't supported by bulkheads or baffles.

The scaffolding was weighted down with bricks to ensure that the fibreglass and epoxy would fit to the cockpit sole properly.

When I removed the screws holding down the bunk panels, I had filled the screw holes with thickened epoxy, so this had to be sanded flat.

Whilst there, I cleaned up some of the other rough areas as well.

The edges of the bunks were sanded with the finishing sander, prior to laying fibreglass tape.

The areas that had been epoxy coated were hand sanded to key them properly to take the epoxy-soaked fibreglass tape.

The base of the forward bunk lid was first coated with clear epoxy, and then thickened epoxy added before clamping in place.

The excess epoxy and squeeze-out was scraped off immediately.

Fibreglass tape was laid along the join between the hull and the bunk tops. I used four lengths of tape for each side, to allow for the curve.

More tape was used to reinforce the join between the bunk and the centreboard case.

The forward locker hatch in the bunks were fitted.

I'm puttting a frame around the footwell in the cabin, to support an extension to the bunks. The bunk extensions will also be the floor of the footwell.

I used the support frame to trace the edges of the floor pieces that also became part of the bunk.

I laid a piece of ply across the floor and marked depth measurements across it, to cut the floor profile. These pieces will reinforce the floor pieces when they are raised to become part of the bunks. The reinforcements were taped in place to check for clearance. The reinforcements were glued to the floor panels. Initially, they were just tacked in place with epoxy. Once the reinforcements were fixed in place I sanded all of the edges, and then filleted the supports, after coating the supports with unthickened epoxy. The fillets were reinforced with fibreglass tape.

After much dithering, I finally decided that the ballast tank would be filled via a 25mm brass tube, and emptied using a Riley self bailer that I didn't use when building my CS17 Mk1, so it was time to start cutting holes in the hull, before glueing the cockpit sole in place. The initial cut was rasped out to fit the self bailer. I will need to make the hole a bit larger to allow for coating the edges with more epoxy.

There were some spots of excess thickened epoxy to be removed from the right-angled fibreglass brackets.

The bottom of the cockpit sole was sanded and then two more coats of epoxy applied over a day.

The first two coats were applied to the forward cover of the ballast tank and the battery box. After rolling, the surfaces were brushed to remove any bubbles.

Edges of the fibreglass tape were cut away from the floor supports.

The selvedge was scraped and sanded. Then the bottom of the floor panels and the reinforcing supports were coated in clear epoxy.

The battery box lid, the cabin section top of the water ballast tank, and the bunk extensions all got another coat of clear epoxy.

The water ballast tops and the buoyancy tank tops were sanded, ready for unthickened epoxy. After brushing on unthickened epoxy, beads of thickened epoxy were piped along the top edges.

The epoxied parts of the cockpit sole that would come in contact with the tank supports had been lightly sanded to ensure a good mechanical bond.

Lots of weight was added to the cockpit sole to make sure that there was good contact with the glue.

Reinforcing timbers were glued to the transom for the outboard motor bracket and a ladder.

The cabin section of the water ballast tank was brushed with unthickened epoxy and then a liberal bead of thickened epoxy was added.

Once the lid was glued in place, I hammered in a couple of nails to ensure it wouldn't slip when the weights were added to the top.

A fillet of thickened epoxy was run around the cockpit sole and the top of the ballast tank in the cabin.

Once I was happy with the fit of the bunks, the pieces were glued in, using temporary screws to hold everything in place.

The fillet around the cockpit sole was sanded, and a couple of gaps filled with more epoxy.

The ladder had to be altered a bit, as it had two stops welded to the frame that held the ladder at the wrong angle when extended. I cut them off, and ground them smooth Rather than adding new stops to the frame, I enlarged the lower bolt holes, and used long threaded bolts that can be adjusted in or out to set the angle of the ladder. Lock nuts were used both inside and outside the hull, making adjusting the angle of the extended ladder easy.

The tops of the cabin floor boards / bunk extensions and the battery box were sanded and then given three coats of epoxy.

The hardened squeeze-out at the top of the water ballast tank was removed with a chisel. I left it to set to be sure I wasn't removing too much when it was wet.

The selvedge was removed from the fibreglass tape along the bunk to hull seam by scraping and then sanding. Any random drops of epoxy were removed by sanding the tops of the bunks.

Clear epoxy was rolled and brushed onto the bunks. A second coat was applied later in the day, once the first coat was tacky.

Three coats of clear epoxy were rolled and brushed onto the one side of the cabin bulkhead, giving each coat time to become tacky first.

The cockpit sole was sanded, in preparation for taping the edges. The tape was measured, cut, and wet out, then transferred into the boat and unrolled along each edge.

I picked up an ePropulsion Spirit 1.0 Plus electric outboard today, so I was now able to determine the height of the adjustable mount on the transom.

The seat support stringers were cut and beveled, and dry fitted to the hull. Some slots in the bulkheads had to be widened a little for a good fit. The stringers and hull were first coated in clear epoxy. Thickened epoxy was applied to the stringers and then the stringers were fitted to the hull. The screws and pre-drilled holes through the hull made it easy to fit the stringers in the correct position. The squeeze-out was scraped off the stringers and the hull.

 The cabin bulkhead was flipped over, and the back was given three coats of epoxy over the course of the day.

The frames for the cockpit lockers were dry fitted today. The opening I cut for the icebox was too narrow, so it had to be adjusted. Once I was happy with the placement I temporarily screwed them in place. I had traced the icebox bulkheads onto insulation foam before glueing them into the boat. Now it's time to dry fit them. The foam had to be shaped to allow for the epoxy fillets along the hull and bulkheads.

I glued the rear section of the locker hatch frames the wrong way round, so I routed out the piece to correct the problem. This also let me make the gap wide enough to fit the hinges vertically rather than across the top. Another piece of reinforcing timber will be added behind the now thinner rear piece.

The plans show a distance from the rear of the cockpit hatches to the top front of the companionway. I marked this distance on timbers and clamped them in place. Once everything had been checked the cabin bulkhead was glued into place.

The first part of the icebox insulation was fitted in place. I only epoxied the edges and joins inside the box, so the foam can be more easily removed if necessary. The icebox was coated in clear epoxy and then covered in fibreglass cloth. Two extra coats of epoxy over the course of the day completed the installation. A drop-in lid for the icebox has been cut, shaped and fibreglassed as well.

Two support beams for the cockpit seat were checked into the rear locker stringer. Additional reinforcing was added behind the cockpit hatches to support the hinges.

I cut out the forward tabs on the bridge deck for two more beams, using a Forstner bit.

Once the beams were cut to length, the rounded ends were rasped and sanded to match the tabs. After dry fitting, the beams and the hatch reinforcing pieces were glued in place.

The seat panels have butt blocks under all three joins. After dry fitting these I screwed the seat tops to the stringers. The screws will be used to locate everything when glueing down. Once all of the temporary screws had been installed I removed them, to take the seat tops out of the boat.

The butt blocks have been glued to the seat tops, in preparation for coating the bottom of each panel with three coats of epoxy. The butt blocks have two screws in the smaller blocks, and six in the larger one. This helps to keep the butt blocks parallel with the seat panel once the glue is added.