January 2013

This is a revelation. I get a fright when I see now how much bigger the boat seems to be getting with the 2 hulls placed about the final width apart. I have made up the big bridge deck panels which gives the boat its final spacing. The boat can be either 2.3 or 2.4 metres wide. I chose the wider, for better sailing stability. Only when I scarfed and joined the panels , the bridge deck came out so straight and square that I had the full lengths of the plywood sheets to use if I wanted, which were actually 2.440 long , and so with the thickness of the outer hull panels and glass cloth and fairing etc my boat eventually ended up 2.460 m wide.
The plans show a different layout for the ply for the bridgedeck, probably to use up some off the offcuts more efficiently. My way was perhaps more wasteful. I used 2 full sheets plus about 1/3 of a sheet, with the long part of the sheets going across the boat, as mentioned above.

I made up patterns from MDF board to get the exact spacing for the slots where the bridge deck panel slides inside the hulls , fitting around the bulkheads.

 Of course I did a dry, trial fit of the whole bridgedeck panel assembly before gluing it in place.

The small holes are the corners of locker cut outs that I did not want to fully cut out till the bridgedeck panel is glued in place because it looked like the panel would become too “floppy”.

I dry fitted an extra stringer to go at the junction of the bridgedeck panel and the lower hull panel but did not finally fit it till the bridgedeck panel was glued in. This stringer did not show in the plans but it seemed like the plywood might distort without it. Later I realised It was probably unnecessary.

In these photos also can be seen the oversize panels for the inner hulls ready to trial fit, and also the triangular shaped pod for mounting the rudder assembly.