Porthole Installation.

 I decided to decorate the outside and inside surrounds of the porthole windows using 9mm thick plywood rings.

I made the rings large enough to overlap the 6mm marine acrylic portholes. The outside rings will be permanently epoxied in place and the portholes will be sealed and screwed in place with marine bedding compound from the inside. The inside rings will be screwed over the acrylic porthole window (This will allow future replacement if required). 

This pic shows the 6mm marine acrylic porthole with protective covering alongside the drawing of the decorative ring. 

Using a jigsaw, I cut out the rings and cleaned up with a bench sander and a circular drum sander. 

Here are the eight decorative porthole rings ready for edge routing.

Glassing the Cockpit (Cont)

 

To complete glassing the aft cabin, I masked up the section below the companionway ensuring an overlap on the lower fillets.

I rolled three coats of epoxy wet on wet.

That completes the glassing on the upper cockpit sections, now it's time to move to the cockpit floor.

Next layer of fiberglass added to the aft end of the cockpit floor.

Rub Rails

 Rub Rails:

I decided to use blue gum hardwood with the lighter colored hoop pine laminated in-between for the rub rails. But, 18mm thick blue gum will not bend easily around the forward section of the hull without breaking and it would require too many hours in my homemade steamer to soften up enough to make the bend. Also I only had enough stock to complete the rub rails and couldn't afford any breakages.......Sooooo, I decided to halve each section to 9mm thick and laminate them in place. This required a lot more labor (A total of 6 laminations per side), but the thinner timbers bent easily and smoothly around the hull, and I think the laminations will look nice.

Time to make some dust and mill up some blue gum hardwood floorboards and hoop pine into 9mm strips.

Time to turn floorboard planks from this........

Into this..........

The rub rails needed to be 5m long, the floorboards were not long enough and required scarfing.

 A 90mm cut gave a one in ten scarf.

The scarfed sections are glued and held in place with clamps alongside a large aluminum straight edge. 

A port view of the first 9mm blue gum laminate temporarily screwed and glued in place.

After the second blue gum laminate it was time for the contrasting hoop pine laminates. Again, I milled the hoop pine into 9mm thickness to smoothly bend without any risk of breaking.

Fortunately, the hoop pine lengths I had in stock were long enough and did not require scarfing.

After the second hoop pine laminate it was time for the last of the blue gum laminates.

This bow view shows the 5th blue gum laminate, one more to go.

I'm not sure if I will leave the very front nose section as shown in the pic with the laminates overlapping to a point or cut it off square along the front as per the plan.

(after all its covered up by the bowsprit)

I'll have to sleep on this one.

This pic shows the six, 9mm laminates finally glued in place.

And here is the port side cleaned up.

 Firstly, I used a belt sander with 80 grit sandpaper to clean up the epoxy squeeze and level down the laminates.

Then I rounded the aft end to a smooth curve into the aft hull side.

A curve was routed along the top edge of the entire length prior to sanding smooth with an orbital sander using 240 grit.

I have to admit this was a very labor-intensive way of installing the rub rails, however the finish product speaks for itself. Using 9mm thick laminates prevented any breakage or splintering of the hardwood when bending around the bow section.

After removing the screws, I plugged all the holes.

 

Rudder / Glassing and peel ply

 

Fillets sanded, cloth tape smoothed in and the section cleaned up.

Fiberglass cloth smoothed over the lower sections.

Peel ply smoothed over the glass, this will leave a clean smooth surface and not require too much sanding.

For extra abrasion protection I laid two layers of glass cloth to the underside of the foot and finished with peel ply.

I just love peel ply, once removed it leaves an amine blush free super smooth finish...........did I say I love peel ply?

After filling and sanding a few imperfections, it was time to apply some epoxy coats.

I used a foam roller and applied two coats wet on wet.

Glassing the Upper Bow area

 

The sheer clamps are rounded over on the inner and outer edges. The upper bow area is sanded, cleaned and masked up. The overlapping glass from the cabin top is feathered in.

Here is the glass cloth section ready for wetting out.

Port section in place.

Starboard section in place.

Transom Skirt

 

To quote John "The fussy bit of trim" for the transom skirt is shaped with a block plane and........

......glued and clamped in place.

The second triangular section is cut from blue gum as I intend to make this section a feature and lacquer it bright.

Unfortunately, the blue gum is hardwood and to bend it in the two directions of the transom skirt I had to make some temporary props. The props will not only allow the hardwood strip to smoothly bend along the transom skirt but notches in the props also hold it down. 

The three props are screwed and clamped in place. 

Plastic is located to prevent the triangular section adhering to the props.

Epoxy is applied and the section is clamped in place.

Due to extreme force of bending the hardwood strip I left it for a couple of days to ensure it is fully cured.

Clamps off a light sanding and a coat of resin.

Filleting Sanding and Glassing the Cockpit.

 

Fillets for the cockpit seats and cockpit floor are laid. Be prepared for quite a few hours work here. 

After sanding the first layer of fillets I found a second layer was required for any low sections and imperfections. (The usual fillet process).

I started glassing the forward face of the transom. For additional strength I previously glassed over the transom skirt filet with 100mm wide fiberglass tape.

I made a paper template prior to cutting out the glass cloth.

The area is taped up and the glass cloth epoxied in place.

Port side glass cloth next......

One 2.4m x 1m length of glass cloth covered from below the gunnel seam up over and down to the cockpit floor. Overlapping the filet.

Starboard side smoothed in place.

Glass is smoothed in place on the port side of the aft cabin BH.

Peel ply applied to the wetted-out glass.