I have been preparing the shed and the boat to rotate the boat. I have cleared up down one wall but I still have to clear the other wall, which includes removing some of the long bench I have built and to further complicate that job, I have used the space under it as a place to hoard long lengths of timber and other junk (yes I know, I am going to have to stop being a hoarder) so first I have to clean that up.

Using the pallet jack I have raised the boat off at each corner to remove the chocks from under the cradles to see if the wheels that were up to the task when the cradles were used to move the hulls into position prior to joining but I pretty much knew they would not be up to the job now. I have beefed up the cradles but the wheels will need to be replaced. They are only rated to about 50kgs each but I am going to need 200kg rated wheels. With 4 on each cradle and 4 cradles means a carrying capacity of about 3200kgs and even that might not be enough when the boat is fully finished and being removed from the shed so it is pointless not making them strong enough now. So I have to find some suitable wheels for the cradles before I can continue. If I cannot find them soon, I will use the temporary method we used to move 9 Lives out, they are a heavy duty dolly but uni directional, so each time you want to change direction you have to jack the boat up and change the orientation of the dolly. I would prefer to fit multi directional (castor) wheels so you can just push the boat in any direction needed.

In the meantime I will continue with the work needed to finish the noses before the nose cones go on (later after the boat is turned). This work includes cutting access holes in bulkhead 0 in order to get inside between bulkhead 0 and 1 in order to glass the inside of the side deck to the inside of bulkheads and to the deck and hull. Once this glassing is done, and the dust inside this section is cleaned up (I didn’t do it before putting the side decks on) knowing I would have to access the space from lower after the access holes were cut in. After that I will put some uni glass in the very bottom of the hull to beef up the keelson. Another task will be to glue a ply pad to the space between the end of the forebeam and the side deck. I am not 100% sure why the plans call of this, perhaps to ensure that should the boat flex that the forebeam cannot print through the hull side, but I cant imaging that this could happen, there is an awful lot of glass holding the beam to the bulkhead each side. Anyway, the plans call for it and it is an easy enough task.

The final task will be to add a ply pad to the inside of the bulkhead to beef it up where a stainless steel strap (8mm x 50mm x about 250mm) with 3 12mm holes drilled into it. 2 of the 3 holes are to bolt it to the bulkhead so that it protrudes out onto the deck revealing the 3rd hole at the top as a mounting point for a forestay sail. Whilst the masts are unstayed, the sail plan can include foresails, either small self tacking sails or larger overlapping genoa type sails. On a beam reach the windward sail blankets the lee sail so another option would be to run just one main and a foresail on either the same or opposite hull. Also if the sailing calls for lots of tacking a foresail makes tacking a little easier so whilst they may not be used often, the provision to have them has to built in. The plan will be for them to be on flying furlers, and stowed furled, then you deploy them by attaching the halyard to the top corner of the sail and the bottom corner gets attached to the eye I am fitting then the sail is unfurled, the opposite to stow it again. Pretty simple really. And I figured the most effective way to attach the pad eye was a stainless steel strap bolted to the bulkhead beefed up with ply pads each side. But because the bolts wont be accessible once the access plate is back on I am going to have to glue the bolts in from the inside and apply the nuts from the outside before glassing the nose cones on.

So with the base plate angle changed to 45 degrees and with a roughly marked out cut mark I cut the access holes into bulkhead 0. The angled cut enables the piece to be fitted back in very easily (if you cut square to the face you wont be able to hold it back in without adding a rim plate behind the cut, not impossible but extra work for no gain) and the other thing it does is ensure the cut-out cant fall in, it can only fall out.

With the access fronts off the space I had covered over a few months ago was opened again. I had trimmed the forebeam down before attaching the side deck leaving enough space to fit a ply panel between the end of the beam and the inside of the hull sides. When trimming the forebeam I dropped pieces of beam into the space but did not worry too much about it then as I knew I would be cutting the hole which would get me closer to the bottom. But it is still too deep and narrow for me to reach the base so with a combination of vacuum cleaner and screw on the end of a stick I got all but a few hard blobs of glue and one last piece of cedar when pushed hard on it with my stick with a screw through it and bugger I broke the screw off. Anyway, either a magnet will get it or I will put a piece of glass over it and pour some resin in to glass it to the inside of the boat so it cant move. I had always intended to put some wet glass into the bottom of the very tight V to act as a keelson anyway so it will just cover over any last bits and pieces in there!

I should be able to get glass to the joins and have the ply pads cut to shape and glued in this weekend, and get the fronts back on. Or at least be ready to glass the fronts on once I bolt the stainless steel stay plate.