Went for a short sail today, or at least dreamt of doing so.
With some helpers, we flipped the hull last night. The volume in this boat amazed me. Since September I have been looking at her from the keel. Once flipped, it is a whole different perspective. I think she's got capacity to carry a tent and some grub.
All last evening I was chomping at the bit to start work on the interior, but hadn't decided on how to support the boat for work. I finally chocked her up with female moulds edged with a plywood cradle and carpet. The hull is very secure and I felt no give while walking and sitting in there.
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| Cradle with 1/4 ply scrap. |
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| Installed with bracing. |
I chose stations 2 and 6 for the cradles. This is where the 2 bulkheads will be installed. I clamped braces across the gunwales at stations 6, 4 and 2. Little effort was required to pull the beam in line. It had opened up about 3/4". This structural system is amazingly rigid.
Here are a few photos of the upright hull. I'm happy with the shear after all the contortions to view it upside down. I don't think I was more than 1/8" off from any of Iain's marks after it was all done.
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| Starboard. |
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| Starboard quarter. |
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| Further aft. |
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| Interior looking aft. |
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| Bow stem. |
The rest of the afternoon was spent trimming the inhales to fit and experimenting with lining a hole with copper pipe bushing for wear. I'm inclined to have a simple hole in the bow stem in lieu of a "nose ring". I got good results with a parallel sided chunk of wood, but the stem is trapezoidal. I flared the pipe by wiggling a large screw driver in the hole and hammering with a grommet tool. More tests are going to be required before risking on the actual boat, but I like the appearance.
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| Test copper bushing. |
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