I have not done much work (well almost none actually) since last week. On Thursday I had some visitors that were on their way to the Muster drop in to see my build for themselves. Max (and Elvie) had visited before, Stefan and his father Gilbert are building a 1320 but have not started on the hulls yet, Mike is thinking of building, and Dave and Tim from New Zealand are also going to build but are still to settle on a design. I hope visiting my shed was helpful to them. There does not have to be a muster on to visit our build, if you want to see it for yourself, send me an email and we can set a time.

The muster was very helpful to me this year for a couple of reasons, first the demo was of fairing using the notched trowel bogging method to fair curved surfaces such as the forebeam. Very timely as I am just about to glue my beam and will need to fair it. The method described will save me a lot of work.

The other great benefit was in seeing a finished cat that had many features we would like to implement on our build, 3 ideas in fact from an Alaskan 41 power cat. Firstly the use of linings to save on fairing inside, such as vinyl wall and roof linings and the use of timber veneer. The use of cork flooring in the cockpit and steps, untreated it is very soft and cool underfoot and has a natural non slip function and looks great, Jo’s only concern is spills such as butter or red wine would stain it. The saloon and galley set up also suits us and we will adopt it as much as we can, we are restricted a little in that we cannot put the stairs as forward as they are in the Alaskan because of the slope of the roof and the side walls not being as vertical due to the higher windage that would cause. We like the idea of the kitchen facing aft looking out of the huge window while in the galley, and the extension this also gives to the bathroom in the hull below bringing the steps forward and making the little hallway much shorter. We also like the shape of the couch and dining table and it also leaves some room for a nav desk. On the other side in front of the couch will be another cupboard on which the TV will sit and also the nav electronics. The doorway will be narrowed to a single width rather than double door and in the space we will fit a floor to ceiling pantry with a curved front as in the Alaskan with a full height wet closet on the outside to hang wet weather gear in. The glass in the windows will be the Schionning method of pulley rope drop down windows.

The muster was as usual not only a heap of fun and very informative, but the best part for me is the motivation to get on and finish that it gives. I use every opportunity I can to get onto finished cats, there is nothing more motivating than being on a finished boat. At the dinner on Saturday night, the Schionning team again thanked us (as they did last year) for having our website for prospective builders to read and for allowing them to visit and see for themselves what the project would involve. It is really our pleasure what we do but to receive their appreciation is really nice and this year they gave us a Raymarine portable VHF radio. Nice. Last year they gave us the through hull fittings for speed and depth. We figure if we take long enough to build they will completely fit us out! Just kidding.

So today I got back onto the building. I didn’t do much yesterday as I was feeling really tired. I guess the being in the sun all weekend took it out of me. I gave the panel a bit of a sand whilst it was on the boat, more because I had covered some of the holding screws with bog and had to get them out. In the end I could not unscrew them so I had to push them through the panel and remove them from the bulkheads. With the panel off I now have to sand the inside ready for glassing. I stopped filling the inside with glue because I realised it would be easier to glue it from the inside and then apply the glass wet on wet. Less sanding. So before the weekend I will get the inside glassed and back onto the boat to set before I take the temp bulkheads out of the port hull and put them up in the starboard hull to strip that side.