Lower Hull Preparation

 Finally, it's time to prepare the lower hull and sides before glassing.

The first job while the boat is upside down is to sand the underside of the rub rails.

 This was no easy task due to my decision to build the rub rails from six laminated strips consisting of red gum hardwood and hoop pine. (see 10/10/2024 "Rub Rails" post)

Time to raise some saw dust and despite being connected to a vacuum I certainly produced a lot of dust.

 After a couple of hours pushing the belt sander and breaking three 80 grit belts I managed to clean up the rub rail undersides.

 

I then spent the next hour sanding off all the epoxy blobs that flowed through some of the joins like stalactites.

I also needed to smooth the hull bottom to keel section in preparation to allow a smooth fillet.

It's been a while but time to mix up some epoxy filler.

Time to fill all the stitch holes and voids.

I used Q‑Cell which is made from hollow glass or ceramic microspheres. When mixed into resin, it:

• Adds bulk without significant added weight.

• Improves workability and flow

• Provides reasonable compressive strength

And most importanly:

• Is easy to sand once cured.

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Flipping Day

As discussed in Aprils post the boat was loaded on the trailer and relocated to a new workshop.  Now it was finally time to take it off the trailer and flip it upside down.

So, I selected a date and made a few calls to my mates for help with a flipping party.

So, with 6 lifters, 1 photographer, and 1 supervisor we positioned ourselves in preparation to lift off the trailer.

You may have noticed I built 2 cradles, 1 forward and 1 aft on top of the boat that will allow the boat to sit level and at a good height from the ground when flipped. The forward cradle was screwed and bolted to BH 2 while the aft cradle was screwed directly to the seat back top.

We slowly slid the boat out of the keel cradle....... 

.......and onto a grassy patch on the ground.

2 old car tyres are placed under the starboard hull sides.

Then up we go, with the boat held on its side we relocated lifters to the opposite side.

We slowly lowered..........

........until the boat sat on its new cradles.

We then walked the boat into the workshop and........

.........placed it down.

Thanks, so much guys for your help, now it's time for cake and coffee.

I spent a bit of time levelling the boat both forward, aft and athwartships.

So, a word of advice to future builders, while we manage to flip the boat with 6 helpers, I think 8 would make it much easier.

So I will make a couple of extra calls when flipping her back.