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.