2008 building logs

June 2008 Daggers done, fitting forebeam and closing bows

I should pass another milestone this month and fit the dagger cases and the forebeam into the boat and close up the inside bows and foredeck. I wont be gluing the hull to deck turns on yet as I still need to fit mast tubes in and this will be some time yet as I don't yet have the masts. It is also easier to fit the inside panels first as far as coving and glassing them from the inside is easier with the hull to decks off as it leaves the smaller hull to deck joins to do after the decks are sealed.

June 1 Fitting floors in bows

Today we cut a cardboard stencil to ensure I had the correct size of the floor and then once I had trimmed it here and there I had my size and I transferred its shape to a piece of ply and cut it out. Sam and his sons helped again, and the youngest came up with what sounded like a funny idea but ended up being a good on. I crouched down in the space and they lowered the floor down on with me underneath. I was able to see where it was binding and after just one trim it fell down onto the ledges perfectly. I pushed it out from under it ready to glue it all in.

I then coved and glassed the floor bases that yesterday I had glued into the first buoyancy chamber between BH3 and BH2 in the port hull (I am going to put floors in 4 of the 6 sections, not doing the most forward ones in each hull). The cove applied with a flat scraper so is not a half round as normal then whilst wet I applied glass tapes all around and rolled it down with the detail roller to be sure there were not air bubbles. Before I started I cut 2 glass offcuts to size and whilst I was glassing the bases in the boys were wetting out the bottom of the floor.

I then smeared a lot of glue along the top and got out and we lowered the floor down onto the glued base frame. I then got in again and back filled the edges with glue and coved the edges. While doing this the boys were wetting out the tapes and once I was done coving I laid the wet glass on and rolled it down to seal the floor in. I decided not to push on and glass the top today, I will wait for it to set, sand the tapes and top and glass the top, probably in 2 pieces.

I then glued the bases into the corresponding space on the starboard hull. The method is to decide on a height and screw the first side level to the bulkhead, then you do the same on either side hull panel ensuring you maintain the level and finally the other bulkhead. Once all dry fitted you remove one at a time, butter up the piece with glue and re attach it to set, once all 4 are on and set you cove and glass them as I did today.

I intend to make the next 2 higher so that the space below the top is less deep, these will be deck hatches to store fenders and docking lines.

Then to finish for the day, I cut the last sheave box into the second dagger (the bottom half sheave) and glued it in. I am still to fair the second side of the second board, the fourth and final side. The bog on this last side was only applied yesterday using the mold as a screed (this means it is almost fair already and will sand fair a little easier) and is not set enough to sand today but I can start on it tomorrow. The last 2 boxes are glued in but I am still to grind them back to faired in.

For regular readers you will know that on the first day of each new season I inspect the PureSeal sample I am testing. For new readers PureSeal is a prototype antifoul that claims to last 5 years or more and works by staying so slippery that nothing can grip to it and I have a test panel of it hanging off the pier where I live. The first sample was an abject failure. But the second sample is still working after 18 months in the water.

I actually tested it a week ago prior to leaving for the boat show because I wanted to know if it was still working so I could talk to the importer at the show (that is what the stripe down each side is). The importer is still deciding if they will re release it to the market having lost a lot of money on the failed first batch. As far as I am concerned, it is still working properly. If I had applied normal antifoul to a cat when I first put this in the water, now is about the time that I would be hauling it out to remove growth and re apply it, so lets call it a couple of grand in slip fees, and about a grand to re antifoul. All I would be doing if I had this on my cat would be to anchor in shallow water and giving it a wipe every 3 months or so.

As you can see from the test plate it still wipes clean using just the skin on my finger. There are some hairline scratches on the surface but they don't seem to affect the performance, they started to appear on the last test 3 months ago. The panel comes out of the water with just light algal cover, no hard crustacean growth (compare that to the original test panel that showed a failure after 9 months and has now been in the water 27 months and has oysters growing on it).

As far as I am concerned, the test is about a third of the way through, or maybe half. If this is the way the panel will perform in another 18 months I will be applying it to my boat as I will be about to launch some time after that. 3 years in the water and still working for me makes the stuff a bargain. I have copper epoxy on my hulls and this works in a similar way but starts to lose its effectiveness after a few years as the copper exposed to the surface loses its toxicity to growth. Who knows this stuff might also lose its effectiveness after the same period meaning I would be no better off with it than my hulls would already be with copper epoxy but I will continue to report and if it continues to work it makes the decision to buy it easier.

A good start to the month.

June 7 Still fitting floors in bows

I have not made much progress during this week. I did finish sanding and fairing the second daggerboard so apart from some pinhole filling in both boards they are faired and ready to paint.

The 4 case halved are also all made so now I have to glue the halves together to complete the cases. I will copper epoxy the bottom 300mm (I was told that barnacles cant grow inside the cases because it is too dark but I will still give them a coat just to be sure. I need to trim the front of the case halves as they are oversize, but they are just the right size at the rear so I don't need to trim there.

I have also made the rest of the false floors and dry fit them. The most forward of them between BH1 and BH2 will be set about 650mm from the top and have through deck hatches and they will be used for fenders and docking lines, nothing too heavy (you don't want too much weight in the bows). While I was cutting them to size I had one just a little out of shape and as a result it was catching in the forward inboard corner. I was about to trim it to correct it so that the floor would be level when it occurred to me that not only did it not matter because at any moment the bow could be up or down from level, fore and aft or port to starboard, but ideally (assuming a dead calm and level float) you want one (inboard) corner to be lower than the other three and to have a through hull drain in that corner so that any water that gets into the hatch will drain right out again. So now I am deliberately setting the forward hatch floors down on the inboard back corner.

I also have the bases (the strips glued to the hull or bulkhead that the floor glues to) cut to size and some of them glued in ready to glass the base of each floor and glue it in. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow so that I am then ready to start working on the forebeam and when it is trimmed to size and the slot cut I can glue it in.

June 8 Easy day today

I only worked for about 5 hours today. I started at 10am and left at 3pm. Not much to report. Today I did glue all of the false floor bases into the boat so all I have to is glue the floors themselves in. I want the floors glued in so that I can stand on them when I fit the forebeam, hopefully next weekend.

Today I also trimmed the forebeam to size. This took a little while as I had to re-measure and remark all of the centrelines, etc. I started by finding the centre. This was fairly easy, I used the anchor bridles as my guide and found the centre point between them (I measured them in fairly carefully so they should be a good guide). With centre marked on the beam I measured from outside hull panel (but on the inside of the hull) to outside hull panel, it measured 6560mm (the plans say it should be 6580, 5880 from hull centreline to hull centreline and then 350mm from hull centre to hull inside edge each side, so my boat might be 20mm narrow at the bows, or just my hulls are 10mm narrow each? But I was also measuring trying to replicate the bend in the beam so that may also account for the discrepancy) so I measured 3280mm either side of centre and marked that line on each side as the point where I need to cut the beam to size. I may actually need to trim a little more off as I have to put a 12mm ply pad against the hull sides to spread the loads through the beam onto the hull or if my measurement was out and the plans were correct then I wont need to trim the beam . On the starboard side I only just made it with about 25mm to spare. On the port side I had about 100mm to spare. Once the beam was trimmed to size you could not tell how close a call it was.

I have cut the beam to size but I forgot to take a photo of the cut ends. I started cutting using a hand saw but decided it would be easier to do with the jigsaw, which it was for the outside of the beam but then I needed to revert to the handsaw to cut the centre ply web. Now that I have the beam cut to length I still have to cut the slot in it along side the web that will slide over the bulkhead and the web provides a larger surface area to glue onto the beam, but remember the glue is not strong enough on its own, it is usually just to hold the parts in place until you glass it.

Tomorrow I should have the false floors glued in and the slots cut in the beam. Its getting exciting again.

June 9 Forebeam slots cut

I did another 4 hours on the boat today. I could have done more, given it was a public holiday but I spent the morning with Jo. Jo wanted to see Sex and the City movie so I went with her, she had organised to go on Friday evening with some friends but she wasn't feeling too well. Whilst it isn't a movie I would normally choose to see, I enjoyed seeing it with Jo, not least because she clearly enjoying it so much. Its a 2.5 hour movie and we went to the 10.30am session so I didn't get the the shed until 2pm.

I glued the false floor into the more forward hatch between BH1 and BH2. I had the bases (duflex strips) already glued so today I coved the bottom of them and glassed them in, glassed the bottom of the ply and glued it into the boat. I pushed glue down into the join and if I had time I would have coved the top and taped it in, but because I didn't have time I just made a rough cove with my finger and tomorrow I will run a proper cove over the glue and tape it down. I will then also glass the top to fully seal the panel in.

I ran out of time because before I started on the ply floor I cut the bulkhead slots into the forebeam. It started badly. Despite reading the Schionning manual on installing the forebeam numerous times over the past few days including twice yesterday, and also re reading the plans I started cutting the slot on the wrong side of the ply web. The instructions clearly say to cut the slot at the back of the ply web so the aft face of the ply web glues against the forward face of bulkhead 1 but I started cutting the slot to the front of the web. Fortunately I only got about 200mm in before I noticed my mistake. Also fortunate is that this will fix fairly easily (in fact I glued it today and tomorrow it will be fixed). In the end even if left unglued, it will be of little consequence. The beam will be glued and glassed onto both the forward and rear side of the bulkhead and the cut is just 20cm on out of 4 70cm edges and will be under the glass that joins the beam to the bulkhead.

Still having said all that I would still have preferred to not make the mistake but you are going to make them so better they are minor. What was more annoying is that I managed to mark out the saw cut line on the beam measuring and marking it out and still hadn't picked up I was marking it in the wrong place.

One of the reasons I realised the mistake early is that the beam is so hard to cut. I tried my battery circular saw but it just didn't have the grunt. I started with my jigsaw but it was like I was cutting it with a butter knife. I changed the blade and that worked for about 200mm before it was blunt also. You know when it is blunt as it stops cutting and starts burning. In the end it is pointless continually changing blades as it is the glass that is blunting the blades so fast. So I just persevered with the blunt blade. Once I had the first slot cut out (so both sides of the slot on one side and end of the beam so that the piece comes out, so it is 2 700mm saw cuts) I then used the grinder sander to trim down the slot to size (I had undercut to be on the safe side) and to ensure the slot was exactly at the face of the ply web so it is in full contact with the bulkhead face. I then went to the other end of the beam and cut that end out, this time in the right place from the start. I then turned the beam over and cut the other side out to complete the slot on one end. Again I repeated the method used, using the grinder to finish the slot to size. I had a piece of duflex the same width as the bulkhead to ensure it was a good fit. Not too tight and not too loose, and flush with the web. Then finally the last cut and both slots are done. I have followed the tip in the instructions to stop the slot 10mm short and to trim them out on the job once a dry fit is attempted.

Later this week I will prepare to fit the beam. I have read the building manual and whilst it does not mention to re check the levels of the hulls I am going to do this with the water level (water in a hose) to be sure the 2 hulls are still correctly set at the same height. I have to admit that it didn't occur to me to check this, but I mentioned to James that I would need a hand to lift the beam up and he asked if I had checked the levels and it makes sense. I am not sure what if anything I will be able to do about them if they are not given that they are glued and glassed to each other for 2 thirds of their lengths via the bridgedeck but if they are just a little out perhaps I can raise the low one with the pallet jack until the are level and the beam glued in. I don't expect them to be out but I guess I should check them before gluing the beam in but I suspect that the manual doesn't worry too much about it because only minor decencies can be fixed.

Finally today, I have glued the last piece back onto the port hull, the piece I cut off the chamfer panel when fitting it all those months ago. I had been waiting until I had finished all of the work inside these sections of hull as they make getting in and out all the harder. I wont glass these glue joins separately as they will get covered by tapes when I join the hulls to the strip planked sections.

So tomorrow I will finish the hatch floor taping in the Port bow, and glue the floor into the Starboard side if I get time, if not then Wednesday in preparation for fitting the beam.

June 11 All hatch floors glassed in

All of the hatch floors (well all but 1 that I now have other plans for) are glued into the hull and glassed. The forward ones provide a platform to stand on while fitting the forebeam to the boat.

I have also checked the level of the hulls. I have a mark on each hull at Waterline +1200mm. I set up the clear water level hose on each hull and found that the port hull water level is just above the line and the starboard hull just below. So over the 7000mm beam the boat is maybe 2mm higher on one side than the other. The WL1200 lines are take off the waterline marks and all of the marks are in thick black felt pen of 1mm wide so given that much margin of error (2mm each hull just in the thickness of the felt pen marks) I am happy to pronounce the hulls exactly level.

June 12 Beam sitting almost in place

I lifted (well me and 2 helpers) the beam onto the hulls today. I have one side slid into place and the other side (port side) is sitting above the hull to deck turn panel. It will need to be removed before the beam can be slid over the port bulkhead as the beam is still wider than the boat.

The beam is quite heavy and the slots I have made are only just big enough for the bulkheads so man handling the beam around is not an easy task. I wont be able to finish dry fitting until I have help to remove the port hull to deck panel on Saturday. Once I have the beam closer to in position I will be able to mark it more accurately for trimming, but the pic above indicated the angle that I will need to trim it by but nowhere near as much as that, in fact probably less than half that but the same amount from each side.

June 14 Beam in place ready to glue in

I needed some help lifting the side deck off the port hull before I could do any further work on the beam so while I waited I got on with another little task you may have noticed that I was stalling on. Trimming the dagger cases and gluing them. Not a particularly taxing task but I have been stalling it. So today I got into it to find that as with nearly all tasks I put off, that it went smoothly and easily.

I trimmed the case halves with a jigsaw and a line marked by eye. And although I wobbled here and there it will all glue together well and I am happy with the fit. I started by masking tape 25mm wide strips of 3mm mdf to both sides of a dagger to give me 3mm clearance each side when the case halves are fitted together. Then with a case half in the original mold just to give me somewhere stable to sit it I placed the spaced dagger in the half and by eye I marked the case to the centreline of the leading edge of the dagger and I cut the case down. I then cut a second case half down by the same amount and fit it in place but found I still needed to trim a little more off. Which I did and then reset it, marked any high spots in the jigsaw cut that were stopping the case halves meeting the way I needed and trimmed them. With the cases fit how I wanted I clamped them together to be sure they would pull together correctly and still give me the space I needed all around the dagger. It all fitted well. The instruction manual says to not trim the front edges square to each other but instead to have the inside corners touching but the front of the join more open so you can gently edge glue into the join without it oozing out the inside of the case.

Once I had the first 2 case halves fitting to each other to make up a case I gave the bottom inside 600mm a coat of Coppercoat (antifoul paint). I have been told that the inside of the dagger cases are too dark for anything to grow but I figure it is just a coat of paint so it certainly cant hurt and this is just insurance. I trimmed my 25mm ply case backs to size. The plans say they should be 60mm wide, I had them at 80mm. I measured the back of the case outside edge to edge and sure enough it was 60mm. A quick run over the table saw and I had them trimmed (1 for each case). I then glassed one side of each with 3 layers of double bias, these will be the inside of the case and I guess 3 layers because they will be rubbing each time the dagger goes up or down. The outside will be glassed once the cases are glued together.

Hopefully I will glue and glass these shut tomorrow and I will have my first case ready.

The guys finished what they were doing and helped me remove the side deck so I could get to work on fitting the beam. Once I was able to move the port side of the beam down onto the bulkhead I could get a better idea of how much more the beam needed trimming and the bulkhead slots needed extending. I quickly saw that I needed to extend the slots about 50mm each side and trim the beam about 30mm - 70mm (the amount increases at the front of the beam as the hull tapers). I extended the slots and pushed the beam over into the middle lining up the centreline on the boat to the centreline on the beam using a straight edge on a duflex offcut. The beam is pretty close to exactly centre now, it is about 5mm off centre and needs to move to starboard that amount to be exact. I will move it across when I glue, I have marked the beam to show where it needs to be to move just the 5mm. I just have to get the height on each side measured to be sure it is being glued level and then I will glue it and clamp it in position to set.

Hopefully I will also get this done tomorrow so that I can tick another milestone off the list. Of course the beam needs quite a lot of glassing and not all of it can be done until the strip planked sections are glued onto the boat.

June 15 First dagger case glued

I had a light day today only 4 hours. There are some things that trump boatbuilding, going out on a cat is one of them, though the weather is crap here at the moment so I didn't do that. No today my football team was on TV, Carlton was playing the old enemy Collingwood with a genuine chance of winning and a win would put us in the top 8 for the first time in years. And we came from behind for a fantastic win.

I did glue the first daggerboard case together at the leading edge. I clamped the case halves together as I had when I dry fit them yesterday after trimming and then mixed some resin and painted the edges before mixing a thick mix of glue and gently towelling it in and along the join being careful not to push too much glue too forcefully in as I don't want it coming out of the back inside the case.

Once I had the front filled with glue I wet out some small strips of tape and glassed the ends of the case and one in the middle and also the rear corners so that when it is set it will be locked in place. Because the case is clamped tight against the packed out dagger inside and is a little tight I am anxious that I might not be able to get it out so if I cant I can grind the 2 small tapes off at the rear and pry open the case halves to free the dagger but I doubt that will be needed. Of course once I take the packing strips off the dagger it will have 3mm clearance all around and should slide in and out easily even thought I still have to highbuild and paint the daggers.

Then having done as much as I can on the first case until it is set, I got to work trimming the forebeam ends. Cedar strip planked and glassed the forebeam is super tough to cut. The glass blunts jigsaws very fast, I have been told that there are another type of blade called an abrasive blade but I have never seen them and don't know where to get them. Anyway, I persevered with the regular jigsaw blade. The problem with the method is that when the blades are blunt they meander off the line you are trying to cut. To exacerbate the problem the line to cut is difficult to estimate because the hull curved from the bottom of the beam to the top by about 30mm and in from aft to fore by about 70mm so getting the end of the beam exactly 12mm from the hull edge all around is difficult enough, without having to cut the beam on the boat at all kinds of difficult to get at points. In the end it proved easier to cut it as close as possible and use the angle sander to grind down the beam to final size and shape, tidying up an otherwise messy job.

So with the beam trimmed, moved across the 5mm to Starboard to centre it perfectly and seemingly ready to glue I noticed it was 5mm lower on the starboard side than on the port side. I am wondering if I should raise the the starboard or lower the port or a combination of both, or do nothing, after all once the decks are closed up who could tell one side is 5mm higher than the other? The beam is sitting on the hull side on each side and the decks could even end up the same height anyway once glued to the boat (say 2mm higher on the port hull) and bogged and faired (say another 2mm difference) and suddenly we are talking about 1mm. The starboard hull is 2mm lower than the port hull anyway accounting for half of the discrepancy. So in the end I will probably not move it at all. It was at this moment of indecision that I realised I needed to go anyway so that I could watch the football, leaving the gluing and the decision for another day.

June 16 Dagger case back glued on

With the dagger case glued at the front and set today I sanded that smooth so that I could glass the front and glue the back on. The back is 25mm ply with 3 layers of double bias on the inside. I had pre glassed the inside of the backs on the weekend. You have to be careful again not to apply too much glue because you don't want it to squeeze out into the inside of the case. I wet the glass for the front of the case and also brushed resin onto the face of the balsa edges of the case sides and let it go off a little while I applied the glass to the front of the case. Then I mixed a thick mix of glue and applied it as carefully as I could onto the outside 3/4 of the edges in the hope that the glue that would squeeze forward would only be enough to reach the edges. I had to clamp the case sides to pull them in to the correct size so that the case was tight enough.

Now the wait to find out that the case is the correct size and not too tight. I cant imagine that it wont be the correct size but that wait until I can slide the dagger out and remove the packers and slide it back in is always there. Once it is set I will round the back corners and apply quite a lot of uni to the back to ensure that no mater what, there is no way the dagger could ever exit the case backwards!

Then once I do that its time to glue the dagger case into the boat!

June 17 Dagger out of case...eventually

I had worried that the dagger would not come out of the case. For good reason it turned out. I had tried to remove the dagger when I had the case clamped around the packed out dagger and it was tight then and I didn't heed the warning. I also made a rookie mistake on the packing. I ran it across the dagger so that when I tried pulling the dagger out of the case it pulled away from the dagger and jammed inside. I should have run it along the dagger that way it could not pull up from the dagger as the case slid along it. And to complicate matters and probably worse than the packing (although I did not know this until the dagger was removed) was that I had some glue squeeze through into the case and touch the dagger in effect gluing it into the case.

In the end the only way to get the dagger out of the case was to get help and Adam and James helped me lift and drop the dagger until the case shook itself loose. We had tried bashing the case with a mallet, bashing the dagger with a mallet, clamping blocks to the dagger and using a jack to try to move the case all to no avail, but a few drops while holding the case and the dagger slid free.

With the dagger out of the case I could see the glue on the trailing edge of the dagger and inside the case. I had to get that out. But how? I didn't want to take the back off again although that would be the last resort. In the end I found a solution. One of the great skills I have gained from building the boat and no doubt will come in very handy when cruising if a repair is needed, is the ability to solve problems. Necessity the mother of invention. First I tried using my metal square to hit the glue dobs inside the case against the back edge. This broke a number of them free but some were still there. I then tried a chisel on a stick (which required me to grind the handle down to fit inside), this also removed some but was also left some that would not come off. Then finally the solution that worked to remove the last of the dags, sandpaper wrapped around a stick to sand down the last of the dags and dobs.

Once I had cleaned the glue from inside the case and the trailing edge (this sanded off in about 30 seconds) I was able to slide the dagger into and out of the case really easily and this horizontally with the full weight of the dagger and the friction that creates on the dagger side so it should be even easier with the dagger and case vertical. So all well that ended well.

I got the router out and rounded the edges of the ply end and sanded the joins smooth on both sides so that I can glass it tomorrow. As I said yesterday, that will involve at least 3 layers of uni at the bottom but a thought occurred to me that I will also need some uni to strengthen the front of the case at the top because it is unlikely that the dagger would push through the case in the upright position along the length of the case but rather pivot and push through the front of the case up high as it pushes through the case at the back down low. But at least at the front of the case is a bulkhead to give it further strength. One would think that with this level of paranoia that I would never let myself be in a position to run aground with the daggers down and that surely I would raise them when it starts to get shallower but it is not running aground I fear, it is hitting a submerged shipping container or a whale. I know that if I hit one, perhaps the dagger will be the least of my problems but I guess my mind is occupied with what ifs on the daggers as this is what I am working on now and next month when I am on something else that is what I will worry about with what ifs.

June 18 Dagger case strengthened

Today I applied 3 layers of uni to the bottom half of the case at the trailing edge and 2 layers of uni to the top half at the leading edge and then covered the uni and the rest of the trailing edge with a layer of double bias glass.

My thinking with the uni is that the most uni would be needed low on the trailing edge and less uni needed on the front edge and only needed higher up to help stop the back from opening up by stoping the dagger from being able to move forward in a rotating motion. The bulk of any pressure on the case would come in the bottom half at the trailing edge so now that I have strengthened the case I will also build a web into the sole to stop the case itself from moving in the boat if subjected to a massive hit from the dagger hitting something.

You don't ever hear of daggers ripping cat hulls open and it is probably because of the small likelihood of hitting something hard enough to do that much damage but I don't want to be an exception. I now have some piece of mind. And it only cost me some resin and some uni offcuts (from the dagger layup), about 2 hours work (each case, I have yet to do the other one) and will weigh about 5 kilos (I am adding in the likely weight of the additional web) each hull.

I just have to run some resin inside the case on the front and back joins and the case will be ready to fit into the boat.

June 21 Forebeam glued into boat

Today is a milestone day. I have glued the forebeam into the boat. But before I did that I finished the first dagger case (yesterday) and started today on the second case.

To finish the first case yesterday all I had to do was run a bead of resin along the internal joins of the case. A simple enough task, except I made another silly mistake, not critical but annoying. I clear taped the ends of the cases to make dams for the wet resin then mixed up a pot of resin. I poured it into the case (I did the forward join first). Then about a half hour later the resin in left in the pot had hardened so I assumed that the resin in the case would also be hardened. So I mixed another pot and turned the case over and poured resin into the case to seal the back joins. I thought I saw a drip and then another as I realised I the resin in the front join was not hardened and was dripping, and I had even fresher resin in the back join so I couldn't turn the case back over to stop the dripping as the new resin would drip even faster. Fortunately most of the resin had hardened enough not to completely fall. But my impatience meant I had to run a fresh bead (to be sure the join was sealed). The mistake I made is I forgot that resin goes off much faster in a pot than on the job, because on the job it is spread thin so it cant go exothermic but in the pot is heats and then sets very fast as it goes exothermic.

So the first thing I did today was run an fresh bead of resin on the front join just to be sure it is well sealed. The inside of the cases are open to the weather so any water that gets in can get into the core if not properly sealed. It cant get into the boat because the outside of the case inside the boat is completely glassed but inside the joins are only glued so the resin bead ensures the join is sealed. I left the bead to set and it took nearly all day. In summer this would be set in about an hour.

Then I started on trimming the second dagger case. I trimmed the first half then applied the spacers to the other beam, this time along its length rather than across it, so that when I slide the dagger out they cant jam. Then I placed the dagger in the case half and trimmed the second half to properly enclose the dagger at the correct spacing. Once I had the 2 edges trimmed I clamped the front of the case halves together to ensure that the join met neatly and then I glued it. I ran some resin in the slot first using just my gloved finger to apply it, then after it tacked off a little I trowelled glue in using a scraper. As last time I over filled the join at the front to round with a sander when it is set being careful not to push too deep into the join and pushing glue through the join into the inside of the case. I will not glue the back on with the dagger inside the case this time. The back is the correct size so I can remove the dagger and glue the back on comfortable in the knowledge that the dagger will still slide into the case. This will enable me to see if any glue enters the inside of the case and I can easily remove it (with a duracore strip) while it is wet.

Then after lunch I set about gluing the forebeam into the boat. I could not in the end resist correcting the height. The amount I was out was more like 10mm and even that would not be enough to be a problem of any kind, not even cosmetic, but finding the beam 10mm out after it is glued in and dismissing it is one thing but gluing it in 10mm out when it would only take a little work to fix would be silly. I got the pallet jack under the beam at the starboard hull and put a plank in and jacked the beam up 10mm and I then placed a spacer (an offcut of the beam bulkhead slot) under the beam against the hull side and lowered the beam back onto it to remeasure. Perfect. So now the beam is perfectly centred, and the correct height. I marked the centre lines on the beams and traced where the beam joins the bulkhead on the front face on each hull so I would know where the glue should go, and I lifted the beam back off each side to apply the glue. I mixed up a thick batch of glue and trowelled it onto the front face of each bulkhead and got as much onto the aft face of the internal web in the beam on each side as I could reach and onto the back edges that will glue to the back of the bulkheads.

Once I had the beam back in its correct position I cleaned off the glue that had scraped off on the bulkhead as the beam slid back down into position. I made sure there were no voids and filled glue into any I found and then I made a bead of glue on each edge including inside the beam as far as I could reach. With the beam glued back in place aligned with the marks I had to show where it should sit and all the glue cleaned off where it shouldn't be and the joins all filled with glue. I then re measured again just to be sure. The beam is setting exactly where it should be.

Tomorrow first thing, with the glue still green, I will cove and tape the outside of the joins and also inside the beam each side as far as I can reach. With the beam is glassed onto the bulkheads the hulls will be ready to have the decks glued on so that the beam can also be glassed to the outside of the hulls. Then I will glue the back on the second case. Then hopefully there will be time to cut the first hole in the hull to start fixing the cases into the hulls.

June 21 Forebeam glassed into boat

As predicted the glue on the forebeam was still rubbery today so I decided to push on and glass it so that the bond becomes chemical between the glue, cove and glass. It saves sanding and is a stronger bond. So first task was to cove the joins. Easy enough, except under the beam forward of the bulkhead. That one was a bit more difficult to reach but easy enough.

Then while the cove was going off a bit (to harden so that it holds its shape while glassing) I started on gluing the back on the second dagger case. I have learnt my lesson from last time and I removed the dagger before gluing it on. This way not only can I see where any glue came through I wont have any issue with the dagger getting stuck inside. I couldn't resist checking the dagger one last time after I screwed the back on and reassured I took the back off again and glued it up. Once I screwed the back on again I checked inside to see if any glue had come through and using a stick I got the few blobs that had. I then back filled all of the gaps on the outside that needed more glue to fill. Another quick recheck to be sure there was still no glue inside (there wasn't) and I mixed some resin and ran a bead along the inside front of the case so that it could set while the back set. So tomorrow I will round the outside back edges and glass the outside with uni and double bi and all that will be left to do is the resin bead on the back inside edge and both daggers and cases will be complete.

Back to the forebeam and I had pre cut the glass sheets and tapes I would use to glass the beam in so I started wetting it on a bench (on a piece of ply I have been using for this purpose). Once I had them wet (I wet them all out as I have a lot of work time) and rolled them up and started taking them to the beam and rolling them out onto the beam. I got all of the tapes on including the small tapes inside the beam rear of the bulkhead. These only went in about half way because I cant reach any further in to press the glass into place. Again 3 of the 4 outside tapes were easy enough to apply but the forward bottom tapes were harder because of the tight space they are in and to make them easier to apply I had to apply a little more resin so they were over wet. Then I wet out the glass sheets that would cover the tapes and beam in one piece from on the bulkhead above the beam, over the beam and onto the bulkhead below the beam on each side of the bulkheads. With those four pieces of glass on I was done.

The next job today was to mark the dagger case position in the hulls. The first task is to mark a centreline on the dagger case fore and aft and then to mark a line on the bulkhead where the centreline of the case would meet. Then I needed to get the shape of the case onto the hull panel and the easiest way was to take one of the outside case molds, trim it down so that it fit into the space and to trace the inside shape onto the hull.

Once I had the case marked it was time to cut the hole in the hull. It was 5pm and I had plenty of time to cut it but I chickened out. Cutting a hole in the hull is a big step and I wanted to check again that I had it in exactly the correct position and that it was lined up correctly as well (square on the centre line and plumb to the bulkhead). It is a big psychological step to cut a hole in what is otherwise a watertight hull. There is no hurry to cut these holes and glue the cases in, there are many jobs that can be done before this must be done, in fact I am going to have a grey water tank on the inside of the dagger case so with the case position marked I can build the tanks as it would need to go in before the case gets glued in, but I would need to cut the hole and dry fit the case before the tank would be glued in as the case position is critical and the tank would have to be fit after the case was in the correct position even though only dry fit.

Before I cut the dagger cases into the hulls I will probably fit the bow panels back on the boat and glue them in. I am keen to glue these on and the foredeck and to start on the catwalk as it will start to make the front of the boat look finished.

June 28 Dagger case hole cut in hull

Psychologically I crossed a major barrier today. I cut the first hole in one of my until now pristine hulls. It takes a bit of courage. You painstakingly make the hulls as strong and watertight as you can so cutting a hole in it is quite daunting. I had the case position marked for the last week.

During the week I finished the second case by applying the 3 layers of uni and a layer of double bi to the bottom rear half and 2 layers of uni and double bi to the top front half and ran a bead of resin in the inside back of the case. That took me about 4 hours over 3 nights.

Last weekend I marked the position the case will need to be glued in but I didn't yet have the nerve to cut the first hole. It took me a few goes to get the mark in the correct position. I used the molds I used to make the case to mark the cut-out on the hull. It will be roughly the correct shape but undersize because of the angle that the hull panel is on, and the fact the case needs to be square to the centreline. But because it took me a few goes to get the case hole marked in correctly I didn't have the nerve to cut the hole out just in case I had the mark in the wrong place. I thought about it all week and rechecked the plans a number of times and remeasured my marks just as many times and finally I accepted that I had them marked out correctly and determined that I would cut it today.

So I arrived at about 10.30am and by 12.00 I had cleaned the floor of half the shed! As I usually do with jobs I am a bit nervous about I can find many other non urgent tasks that don't particularly need to be done there and then but become far more important as a consequence of the procrastination. No matter, it needed doing as it was getting very messy. I also had a visitor, a builder of an Easy 37 cat about 5kms from me. I will go and visit his build next weekend and help him turn his first hull.

So after the visitors left I got a drill out and drilled a hole in the hull. Once I had the hole drilled it was like it was too late now so I could proceed. Its reminded me of when I was a boy and I got a brand new pair of puma runners. I would be so careful not to get them dirty until I got the first scuff or mud on them and then it didn't matter anymore. So I immediately got the jigsaw and started cutting. I cut to the original marks which I knew to be undersize. I then made the hole bigger each side a little at a time.

In the end I ran out of time today. It took me all afternoon to trim the hole to size, ages before I could even push the case through the hull. As it stands I have it binding in a few places when I try to plumb the case to square. I cant quite get it to 90 degrees but tomorrow I will trim out the last few places that it binds, mostly at the front of the case in the rope trough bulges on each side. I have the case hole cut fairly tightly at the front, not so tight at the back so once I make it a bit looser at the front the case should be able to be righted. I wont be gluing it in right away, I have to de-core the hull panel and cut the case to the angle of the panel, which I will do after marking it and taking it back out. I will also make a grey water tank that will fit between the case and the hull sides so that will go in first then the case will be glued and glassed to it. But I have passed yet another milestone today.

June 29 Bow panels back on boat

I left the port dagger case not quite fit correctly last night. I should have persevered as all that was needed was a little more trimming of the hole in a couple of places and it would be right. It took me just 15 minutes to get the trimming done today and now the case whilst still a little tight it does now sit square and plumb. I intend to have a grey water tank in behind the port case so I still have some work to do on that before I can glue the case in, I also need to trim the case down to the angle of the hull panel and de-core the end as well as the hull panels around the hole so there is still some work to do before it will be glued in but I am getting close. To trim the case at the bottom I will run a texta mark around the case at the hull and cut it off about 10mm over size and then use that offcut as the mark for the other side. Then I will just de-core the case by 10mm more than needed to account for the trim off. I intend to fill the core not with glue but with uni rope to add some extra strength to the area.

So from the dagger cases to the beam and I got on to re attaching the bow panels to start the process of closing up the bows. First I gave the edges of the glass on the strip planked panel a trim and sanded the glass where all the bulkheads will be glued and glassed to it and along the edges where it will be glued and glassed to the adjacent hull panel. I then found a beam mold and used it to mark the shape of the forebeam on the panel where it will exit the hull. Then I cut that shape out. As I usually do in these circumstances I under cut it and trimmed it out on the boat which means that it takes a bit longer than it would if I just cut it to size slightly oversize to start with. The thing is even oversize the hole will just back fill with glue within reason so there is no good reason to be so cautious. Anyway, I eventually got the hole cut to the right size after a number of trims and the panel fits back over the beam and meets the hull.

I then repeated the job on the starboard side, emboldened by the success on the port hull I cut the hole a little bigger requiring much less trimming. I threw a ratchet strap over the panels and pulled them down tight to be sure that everything fits together well. I am almost ready to glue these back on. These inside bow panels will be glued back on and coved and glassed from the inside before the outside hull long curved panel because the bulkhead glassing is much shorter on them, so I can cove and glass these bigger pieces in the relative comfort of having the other panel off the boat, but once I have to do the other side I will have to do it through temporary holes cut in the bulkhead or hatch covers cut out, then do it from inside the cavity contorted, cramped and generally uncomfortable so you want it to be as easy as can be so any sanding work etc needs to be done before I glue any panels on. I also intend to flow coat the inside of the hatch areas so that only the top glassing is left to coat later. I wont be gluing the outside hull turn panels for some time as I still have a lot of engineering reinforcement to do for the mast tubes.

As soon as these 2 inside bow panels are glued in I can start to fair the area. I will also then be able to glue the conduits for the tramp holders on and cove and fair them in. And of course I still have the catwalk to construct and attach. That will be fun as I have a couple of interesting ideas I want to employ in it.