Little house on the ..............Ocean

Everything went as planned for the weekend and İ managed to glue the cabin top.

That did not go without a challenge since İ had to work around some considerable gaps between cabin top and F89, and side decks.

The reason is that, while building the cabin top, İ followed the plans and bent and tortured those (rather short !) panels of ply as much as İ could. And forcing the forward tips flat meant having the sides trying to spread wide open. That is what happens when you force a compound curve on something stiff like ply.

Since İ could not go past the "breaking point" so İ stopped bending those panels when İ believed İ had gone as far as possible.

İn other words, I had the overall shape ok but the final assembly did not fit "perfectly ". No big deal really. Just gaps to be filled.

So İ filled from inside the cabin with some small 10cms strips of polar cut at 45 angle. Those where glued with a "secret" mixture of West 403 (Microfibers) / 404 (High Density) / 406 (Silica). İ like to work with that mixture which is easier to work with than just Microfiber and stronger than just Silica.

İf you zoom on this picture you will see the little bits İ used to fill the gap inside between cabin top and side decks. You can also see the gap around the sides of F89.





From the outside, İ just used a thick Silica fillet for the side decks to cabin top joints. İ will let that cure than apply fairing filler for a nice final shape befor İ glass it.

Close to F110, where the zip ties where kind of loaded, i used a strip of Kevlar. Again, İ also layed a layer of fiber cloth on top just for finishing aspects. İt looks much better and is gives a much smoother final aspect than just Kevlar by itself.







So İ just have to finish trimming , fairing and glassing and my top will be fully ready.

Then İ will glue the monoblock cockpit and it will be time to laminate the whole thing.

Can't believe İ am actually coming pretty close to have this little dream boat on the water.... :)



İ am taking off to Brazil for 2 weeks for the hollydays so no work planned for the next days. Will be back next year !

Wish you all a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !