After a slow start to the week, (I didn’t get anything done on Sunday due to feeling a little ill, I have a cold and yesterday I spent the morning at the orthopedic surgeon being assessed for arthroscopy on my knee) today I got the next panel attached to the hull and the outboard panel glassed ready to go on tomorrow as well as coving and glassing the inside of keel at the bow between bulkhead 0 and 1. The result of the assessment with the surgeon is that I will have the operation next Tuesday so I don’t think I will get much done next week as I recover. I may not get much done this weekend either as I have to help Jo to renovate a shop she is opening soon. So I will try to get as much done before the weekend, then I think it will be the following weekend before I can get more done.

The small bow section is a tight area with the chines all within inches of each other so in order to be sure the glass was well bedded I filled the whole area with filler then attached the wet glass onto the wet filler and pressed it all down into the corners. First the glass was cut to shape and fitted dry to be sure it was the correct shape. Because the bulkhead tape should be one full piece I will still need to apply that once the hull is finished but at least I have got the difficult keel section done and I will cove the joins as I go so will only have to attach the wet tape to finish that section.

Next I attached the panel to the outboard side of the hull. This is a really simple task with the ratchet straps. As with the other panels you place the panel next to the hull (on the drums in this case) in a position where the straps will reach, and then just ratchet it up into place. When it is tight up against the panel above it is a simple matter to screw it down. Then you release half the panels from the centre back (or forward it doesn’t matter) and glue them all before re screwing them down and repeating the process at the bow.

Then once I had that done I glassed the next panel ready to attach tomorrow. As I have been doing on this hull I have been removing the peel ply and re using sections on the glassing.