I have started to anchor the hulls in place (in relation to each other) in preparation for gluing in the bulkhead returns that finally permanently join the hulls together forever. Today I joined together some timber in order to make 2 6 meter spacers with which to set the hulls apart at the exact distance centreline (CL) to centreline of each hull. I have screwed the bows together with the spacer at 5880mm CL to CL. I have moved the hull into position at the stern but I didn’t screw the spacer in yet. The plans suggest you screw the spacer into the balsa edge at the stern but I feel this will easily pull out (just the weight of the spacer would do it) so I am going to screw an mdf plate to the spacer top edge and screw the plate into the top of the stern hull panel with long screws. This should be far more secure.
Oh and I have been forgetting to show a pic of 9 Lives, the other cat being made in the shed. After just 1 week (the material arrived last Tuesday) James has transferred all of the bulkhead dimensions from the plans to the ply sheets and cut them all out (no full size plots or pre cut panels!) and has stood 2 of them on my strongback. I will keep posting pics from time to time as this boat progresses.
In the last pic above you can see how the bulkhead (5) on each hull almost align correctly but there are still 4 planes that still have to be set before I will know for sure that the bulkheads will line up correctly. Once the hulls are set at the correct distance apart and parallel, then next I need to be sure each hull is the same distance from 0 datum, in other words one hull is not going to arrive before the other. I thought I could just measure the distance from the front wall for the face of bulkhead 0 and I probably can but if the wall has a bend in it then so will the boat! The boat has to be correct independent of anything else. To do this correctly I measure from the stern of one hull to the bow of the other and note the measurement, then I check the same on the the other stern to opposite bow and if they do not match I have to move the more forward hull back until the measurements match exactly.
Then after that I have to start adjusting height and hull twist until all planes are set.
