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.