After almost continuous daily activity on the boat I have not been able to work on the boat so far this week. There are various reasons for this mostly because of work commitments and also a minor cash flow issue preventing me from buying some materials I needed until today. So tomorrow I will definitely get some work done on the main build.

In the meantime I have done a little work on the dingy. I have bogged, sanded, faired, high built and further sanded then final coat painted the noses of the dingy in preparation for the final painting of the dingy. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on which way you look at it, I am so pleased with the way the faired noses look that I have decided that for the cost and work, i would rather fair and finish the rest of the topsides of the hulls, as it is such a shame to have the noses looking so good and the rest looking, well, not so good! So I have decided I will fair the rest of the hulls before Paul, my friend paints the boat. I should have it done this weekend and then maybe next week I will get the rest of the boat painted.

Using contact adhesive I have also glued on rubber noses and then shaped them to match the chine lines of the dingy as best I could. This provides protection for any boat I may approach in the dingy nose first. I also plan bump strips on the chine but will wait to see the paint job first. I have also completed the ply flange on the inside of the watertight hatch so I just need to contact down a strip of gasket rubber to seal this hatch. I am in the process of fitting the hinges to the lids. I then just have to over drill all the through panel fittings, back fill them then drill any holes for hatch drains, deck fittings etc. This tedious work for every screw and fitting is a portend to the hours and hours of work to come on the main build. Every time the glass skin of any panel is pierced it must be over drilled, back filled then the actual fitting put into the filled section to protect the balsa core from water ever getting to it, to prevent rot. Ironically it is not sea water that causes the rot but fresh water so any water that gets in under the waterline, whilst still a problem in that any seawater that gets in is heavy, will not rot the core. By any standard, I think our dingy already looks fantastic.