Inner skin

Busy day yesterday, first job was to fit wooden inserts at the rowlock positions so i can fasten braces fron the gunwale down to the hull. Then it was final beveling of the core edge clean up & lay up the in

You can see the two inserts at the top of the hull, they are overlaid with unidirectional roving. Also a strip seen going in at thwart position.

Inner skin all laid up. Strips of unidirectional reinforcement staggered down the hull.

This shot also shows the temporary gunwale batten screwed on to hold the sheer fair while the glass goes off, i trimmed the glass of while still green, saves grinding nasty glass!

Next job is seat risers, bilge stringers & floors.

Off the mould

Spent this morning assembling the building cradle for the Gig. After lunch it was pull the screws holding the core on & go for the lift. All went well.







Heres my son Nick standing by the hull
You may think she is laying over rather a lot, thats because she is sitting on keelblocks to take the lifting eyes out of the keel.

Second photo is dropped into the builing cradle. it has three grp supports which were laminated round the hull over mylar.

Trim up the sheer tomorrow &.Start fitting solid core panels, they have to be fitted at high stress points Also a bit of filling to do!
Well pleased with progress.

Layup time

Spent the last two days laying up the outer skins, all went well. I must be getting old, i could only stand half a day laying glass. It was pretty warm & the fumes got more than a bit heavy so i had all the doors & windows open. Finished at lunchtime.
Think if i do much more of this i will invest in an air fed respirator!

Tomorrows job is to lay up a couple of suppports for a cradle to support the hull while laying up the inside layer & fitting out.
Looks like hull lift off & turn over on monday.

Laying the Keel

Well laying up the keel! I got all the foam core on in two days, it went very well & lays very fair.

Brown taped areas are where the hull goes single skin along the centreline & sheer.
Core is an Airex T92 PET based foam.
It was chosen due to its heat distortion point being far higher than PVC, as its likely a production mould may be taken from her a core that was stable under high temperatures was essential.

View from up the ladder, keel & bow glassed up, next job is to prime the foam & start laying glass.
Im using Atlac 580 Vinylester resin.
Hull layup is based on Australian surf lifesaving association specs Though its unlikely she will ever have to do what those surf boats do!
I have a target weight for the hull shell & to keep to it will need some careful laminating!

Back on the Gig

About time i gave you an update! Had to have a week away from the Gig working with a scrap dealer friend. A local school were closing their Design & technology department down & we put a bid in a while back for all the equipment & won it.
I fear its a sign of the times, lack of investment over the years & schools & colleges becoming risk averse just in case little Johnny cuts himself or gets hurt. Its leading to generations of Kids having no knowledge of tools, woodwork or metalwork (Sorry its called "resistant materials" now).
Thing is as i see it, not everybody is cut out to be a software developer, or media studies wizard some youngsters actiually want to make stuff & there is increasingly precious little oportunity for that.
For the schools & colleges its cheaper to fill a room with banks of computers & teach gaming design or IT than invest in new tools & machinery.
Anyway we cleared the workshops, machines, hand tools, benches, materials the lot.
Took us 3 days of hard graft but hopefully it will be worth it!
We are thinking to put some good tool kits together for apprentices, all good British tools & no far eastern tat!
More on this subject shortly!

Back to the Gig, the jig is all covered with parcel tape so nothing sticks to it and this morning i started fitting the foam, got half a side on in a couple of hours.

Its going on nice & fair, screwed on from the inside, to be honest if i was doing it again i would space the stringers out a little bit as my arms are just a bit of a tight fit to go between them which means i have to keep ducking underneath, to put the screws in. Still its a learning curve!