Now that the unis are all down, I have started gluing the furniture panels together. Within these 13mm panels are the hull webs and soles. They are the parts I need next. Before the soles are glued in I have to lay any pipes or wiring and any tanks so I will probably leave the soles just sitting in place and glue them once the fit out is almost complete but I can glue the webs in and still be able to cut (drill) holes in them to run the pipes or wiring through. There is plenty of room between the hulls now that the legs have been removed.

A reminder for those that have only just started reading or have forgotten the panel gluing nearly 2 years ago, the way I glue the panels to each other is to run a length of timber with plastic over it (the plastic is so the panels don’t stick to the timber) and then I lay the panels onto them tightly against each other, then screw through the panels into the timber to hold the panels in place, I used the strongback last time but felt it too much trouble to bring it back in (it is outside after Nine Lives second hull was finished) as it is extremely heavy. Once all of the panels I wish to glue are screwed down, I remove the screws from every second panel, the ones with the scarf on the top so they can just lift off and drop back in again. Then I run a brush of resin only along each join, this is because the resin is thinner and can permeate into the balsa grain. Then I brush on some thin glue (resin with 403 powder) and replace the panels and screw them back down to set.

I still have to fill and glass the last join down the middle of each hull before I glue the webs in but to save having to sand that glass before gluing the webs down to it I will glue the webs onto the glass whilst it is wet. Once the webs are in I will glue the keelsons down into the sections that don’t have webs and then start on the cockpit furniture. As I glue the panels together the small stack at the front of the boat goes and I will be left with just the Duracore stack, which I will probably start on next month.

There has also been some progress with Nine Lives, both hulls are over and roughly in place, but now James has started on the bridgedeck.