5/5/2026 - Fibreglassed Pipe for the Cockpit Cabin Top Supports
6/5/2026 - Removed Peel Ply. Trimmed Ends and Cut Out Pieces to fit around the Cabin Top Beams. Placed the pipes in place. Need fine tuning to get them in correct place using a level and a few measurements.
8/5/2026 - Fibreglassed BHD 5 to Cabin Top. Fibreglassed the eaves on both sides.
10/5/2026 - 'Mother's Day' - Pulled Peel Ply off BHD 5 & eaves. Sanded & mixed fairing compound for BHD 5. Trimmed the vent holes on the eaves.
11/5/2026 - Faired eaves.
12/5/2026 - Glued the pipe across the floor at BHD 5 (Doorway) and did some sanding.
13/5/2026 - Fibreglassed in the pipe at BHD 5 and had a clean up.
15/5/2026 - Glued doorway mullions on BHD 5 doorway ready to fibreglass.
4/6/2026 - Fibreglassed the doorway mullions with a layer of 400 DB, 3 layers of Uni and a layer of 600 DB.
9/6/2026 - Sanded all of the faired areas up in the cabin areas.
5/7/2026 - Cut out thin strips for the curved join of the sides and the deck - toe rail - on the starboard side and dry fitted.
6/7/2026 - Glued strips on the starboard side and dry fitted on the port side ready to pull out and glue.
7/7/2026 - Worked out what items we need from BLA and made a list last night and added to it today. Glued strips on the Port Side.
8/7/2026 - Worked on the what items we need from VETUS last night
9/7/2026 - Went over everything again today and emails Vetus. Removed and fibreglassed the inside of the toe rail pieces and the 1st stanchion post bases at front. Trev worked on putting the coosa board in where the cleats will go.
11/7/2026 - Glued in the toe rails at the front on both sides.
13/7/2026 - Worked out what we needed to take to the BLA Trade Show and Rob New for our rudders. Sanded outer side of toe rail on starboard side. Quick trip to Newcastle and back 14/7/2026 late - babysitting.
15/7/2026 - Cut out fibreglass. Glassed inside the front toe rail on both sides.
16/7/2026 - Trev did some sanding and working out the cockpit floor to the side of the boat.
17/7/2026 - Cleared out garden in front of house ready for a kids castle, slide, sandpit. Heading to Brisbane for BLA Trade Show and picking up the castle we built 10 years ago for other grandchildren that have now outgrown it and bringing it home for the ones staying with us at the moment. Life is pretty full right now.
18/7/2026 - Travelled up to Brisbane
20/7/2026 - BLA Trade Show - very productive day checking out a lot of things.
21/7/2026 - Dropped into Rob News with rudder, driveshaft and propellor information. Then onto ATL to pick up fairing compound.
22/7/2026 to 24/7/2026 - Erecting the relocated castle.
26/7/2026 - Port side toe rail fibreglassed. Working on the hatches that will go in the floor pieces for the cockpit on the starboard side. These hatches will lead to the Rudder and to the Engine.
27/7/2026 - Fibreglassed the starboard side toe rail. Finished cutting hatch holes in the starboard side.
28/7/2026 - Continued to work on the hatches holes making channels for the hatches.
29/7/2026 - Cut channel to size and glued onto the underside of the floor.
30/7/2026 - Cut fibreglass and fibrglassed the underside of the hatch channels with 2 layers of 400DB and 200.
31/7/2026 - Pulled peel ply off, sanded rough bits and rolled the floors over. Trimmed and sanded and routed out the edge. Filled with thickened epoxy around the tops of the inside rim and around the outside edge top.
2/8/2026 - Fibreglassed the inside of the gutter.
3/8/2026 - Fibreglassed the underside of the hatch lids to make a drip point on the hatch edges. These were done like angle.
4/8/2026 - Pulled peel ply. Routed out top edge of hatches and filled with thickened epoxy. Cut fibreglassed and worked on stanchions.
5/8/2026 - Routed and rounded of those top edges that he filled with thickened epoxy. Fibreglassed the outer edge of the hatch lids for more thickness on the lids drip point.
6/8/2026 - Trimmed all of the lids drip edges and fitted floor section. There was a bit more trimming required on the hatches to get them to open without catching
7/8/2026 - Fibreglassed the underside of the stanchions on port side. The thickened epoxy gassed off lifting the fibreglass and we had to remove it and let the thickened epoxy cure first. Did the starboard side with just the thickened epoxy to avoid that problem.
9/8/2026 - Cut fibreglass , sanded and bogged areas ready to fibreglass. Fibreglassed in the front stanchion bases on both sides inside and outside. Trev mapped out the layout of the cockpit and fine tuned how that will work better with rounded corners.
10/8/2026 - Pulled peel ply off the stanchion bases. Next job is the stringers along the inside of the sides to stiffen up. Once they are done we can fair and undercoat the single & queen bed areas including the shelves and storage areas.
11/8/2026 - Measured & marked out stringer location and cut them out, routed the outer edges and filled with thickened epoxy & uni fibreglass. Covered with taped mdf to flatten out and make smooth surface.
12/8/2026 - Cut fibreglass for the stringers, Glued the fiddle on the stringers. Routed the lower edge on the front of the stringers and fibreglassed them on.
13/8/2026 - Pulled peel ply and tidied up the ends on the stringers and dry fitted them.
14/8/2026 - Still deciding on height of stringers. Had them high and low. Decided that the width needed to be the same as the bulkhead.
16/8/2026 Trimmed down the stringers to allow for Uni fibreglass to be behind them on the wall. Spoke to designer happy for the stringers to be lower rather than higher and he want uni where the portholes go as well. Trimmed off the cockpit wall it had a point on it down to the floor and we cut it off straight.
17/8/2026 - Worked on cockpit furniture.
18/8/2026 - More work on cockpit furniture and the Cardon Shafts from Beatty's arrived today.
19/8/2026 to 23/8/2026 - More furniture fitting in the cockpit and a few days doing things for and with family members.
24/8/2026 - Cut fibreglass and Dismantled the cockpit furniture.
25/8/2026 - Fibreglass in the starboard side of the cockpit floor - underneath only. Cut more fibreglass and peel ply. Fibreglassed the joins on the panels that needed joining to make enough length or width for more furniture pieces. Fibreglassed the curfed corners on the cockpit furniture.
26/8/2026 - Dry fitted the stringers and glued them in. Cut squares for the side walls in the cockpit where stairs go and glued them in. Didn't need those cut out.
27/8/2026 - Fibreglassed the floor underneath on the port side with the 400/600 double bias and also the uni on each side fore and aft of the hatches. Also the fore and aft of the hatches on the starboard side.
30/8/2026 - Fibreglassed the topside of the cockpit floors plus 3 layers of uni from the side and up the end of the beam.
1/9/2026 - Started putting furniture in place and work out the slatted area and the window in the cockpit. not working out very well with two pieces. It all boiled down to how much space we tried to make in the side walkway to the front. Ended up with a happy medium that fitted the window panel ok and added a bit of space to the walkway. The window ended required another piece to go in straight. We made the bird boxes when the roof was upside down so it was a bit of a guess as to how that would all work. We managed to get that looking alright.
2/9/2026 - Cut a single piece for side panel and window. Mocked up the water and fuel fill up space. Worked out that one of the redirection pieces was wrong and needed to get that replaced through BLA.
I didn't put in my diary the day we received the BLA order. I thought I ordered 20m of hosing - turned out I ordered 20 rolls of two different sized hosing. Lucky the half of both sizes were on back order and we were able to stop those being delivered. We boxed up the extra hoses ready to return them as well.
3/9/2026 - Had a day at the beach with grandkids and kayaks. 🛶
4/9/2026 - Trev measured up for the cockpit seats, backrests and bench tops, plus shelving at the back. He worked on the fuel/water filling areas as well.
Had to glue a few pieces together to make more of the furniture.
5/9/2026 to the 8/9/2026 - Did a run to Brisbane to take grandkids home and to visit my aging Aunt at Gympie. Tuesday we returned the items to BLA and then home.
10/9/2026 - All the cut out areas for windows and the fuel/water filling areas were routed out and filled with thickened epoxy.
11/9/2026 - Glued walls and windows on both sides of cockpit.
13/9/2026 - Cut fibreglass for the top window section. Fibreglassed the wall and window section and the shelf on both sides. Bogged the front edge of the shelf support
14/9/2026 - Trev trimmed up the edges and started fitting the rest of the furniture. Glued all the furniture bases in place.
15/9/2026 - Fibreglassed the furniture bases in place.
16/9/2026 - Trev cut out the bench tops and the seats and trimmed them down to fit.
17/9/2026 - Trev continued to cut and fit pieces for the cockpit furniture to make storage spaces behind the back rest and also behind the seat and on the bench top. Lots of things to work out. Hatch sizes for the back rests and for the cupboard. Planning on a twin tub washer but having trouble finding one with a drain pump. Most just have a gravity drain out. I want to be able to recycle the rinse spin water. We need to put a wall between the gas locker and where all the water and fuel access leads down into the hull. This divider will need a had to access that area. Routed out the edges on the access
18/9/2026 - Mixed thickened epoxy and filled in all the routed out edges. Glued in the dividers under seats, glued in the shelving on the port side and also glued in a strip up to the ceiling on the window edge on both sides to make a small mullion.
20/9/2026 - I cut fibreglass while Trev cut the hatch shelves and glued them on and fibreglassed.
21/9/2026 - Cut more fibreglass so that we could fibreglass the insides of the cupboards and shelves and the water/fuel fill areas front and back.
22/9/2026 - Cut Fibreglass and Peel Ply. Sanded everything. routed edges that hadn't been done. Glued in seats and washing machine top. Fibreglassed the back of the water/fuel area.
23/9/2026 - Sanded and tidied everything ready to fibreglass under the washing machine top, the storage holes, underneath the seat tops. Glued the seat backs on the short side.
24/9/2026 - Fibreglassed short side of seat back and in the hatch holes. Glued the back rest supports for the long back rest and fibreglassed the and then glued on the seat back.
25/9/2026 - Trev sanded, trimmed and routed edges on all the seat areas. Started working on the starboard side steps and the storage in the king single bed area.
27/9/2026 - I spend day in the garden. Trev continued to work on the steps on the Port side and the back steps to the sugar scoop (lower deck). Once done they were glued in.
28/9/2026 - I cut fibreglass while Trev routed the step edges ready to fibreglass. Trev also worked on making the bulkhead in the middle of the king single wider to soften the edge. Over the King single will be a hatch to access the motor and Trev cut the surrounds for that hatch, routed out the edges and filled with thickened epoxy. Extended the 240v shore power conduit.
29/9/2026 - Prepped and fibreglass the tops of the side and back steps on both sides. Glued extra pieces to the bulkhead in the king single. Measured for hot water system and the black water tank. - I went to town for groceries after fibreglassing.
30/9/2026 - Fibreglassed the underside of the Port and Starboard steps and under the back steps. Pulled peel ply off the tops and sanded and trimmed and rough edges.
1/10/2026 - Looked at closing the wall in the shower and not put a seat over the motor. Looked at the last small bulkhead that goes at the stern. Scarfed it to get it to curve slightly. Having changed the side profile at the bottom of the steps we now needed to extend the height of the side wall bulkheads. Cut and chiselled out the found section where the rudder shaft goes.
4/10/2026 - Fibreglassed the dished out rudder section. Faired front bridgedeck coves, added in a piece under the anchor area to extend the stringer.
5/10/2026 - Cut out holes to fit the underwater lights - cut the outer fibreglass and chiselled out the foam leaving the inner fibreglass - routed out edges and filled with thickened epoxy. Fibreglassed the inner side of the lights.
6/10/2026 - Fibreglassed half of the outside of the lights on both sides. This proved to be quite difficult so we did it in 2 different sessions which worked out better.
7/10/2026 to 9/10/2026 - Completed the fibreglassing on the outside of lights.
Fairing and sanding the front coves. Added high build. Fairing compound added to single and queen bed areas.
11/9/2026 - Cut fibreglass for the front & the nose of the boat. Did a bit of sanding and filling ready.
12/9/2026 - Fibreglassed the front and the nose on the starboard side.
13/9/2026 - Weather turned rainy and so no fibreglassing can be done in high humidity. So did a shopping trip to Port Macquarie.
14/9/2026 - Trev did more fairing and sanding. I spend days in the garden.
15/9/2026 - More fairing and sanding the front cove.
16/9/2026 - Sanding in single beds. Also cut the wall for the shower area. Cut and fitted the shower wall.
18/9/2026 - Glued in pieces to make the divider wall for gas locker . More fairing in the port side single and queen bed area and in the starboard side single bed.
ps. The white hatch pictured in the cockpit is set into the foam to keep the back rest flat for the back cushion.
19/10/2026 - Glued the extension on the bulkhead in the king single. Didn't like it stopping short so made it go through to the ceiling. Spent some time looking at where the light will go for the internal stairs and what areas that need fairing ready to have a big couple of days on just sanding next week when the grandchildren are away.
20/10/2026 - Sanded Keels. Sanded and faired front of boat on the starboard side that had been fibreglassed.
21/10/2026 - Cut hatch holes and filled edges with thickened epoxy. Glued the starboard side bench and the pigeon holes in. Glued the shower wall in.
22/10/2026 - Sanded everything that required sanding - bit of a bummer with all the rain. It means we can't fibreglass with the humidity so high and so Trev has to keep looking for jobs that he can do while I spent a good week working in the garden. Nice change. 😉. He worked out the toilet couldn't go in the corner at the doorway because the lid wouldn't open properly unless the door was open. The alternate position is a lot better though. We think the pipes and everything that needs to go behind the wall section will fit. ( Includes electicity, toilet, water, fuel). Looked at the handrails for the stairs. Think they may be a bit short.
23/10/2026 - Sanded in the single bed and queen bed areas on both sides.
Me - Watermelon/Pumpkin area ready now to plant. One of the pineapple beds sorted. Put down thick cardboard layer & a thick sugar cane mulch layer. Hopefully that will slow the nutgrass down a little.
24th to the 27th - Wet rainy weather - too humid for fibreglassing. More fairing and sanding. We did route out the edges of the hatch holes in the single beds and around the drawer areas at the end of the queen beds plus the edges on the victron cupboard and around the hatch hole for the fishing rods and not to mention the vents for the fridge/freezer - then we filled with thickened epoxy. Forgot to do the lower part of windows to cockpit - the area we added some height too. So Trev routed those and filled with thickened epoxy as well the next day. Did a lot of looking and working things out.
28/10/2026 - YAY - A FISHING DAY. Caught a few flathead that were too small and 8 that were long enough. One we put back that measured in at 59cm.
29/10/2026 - Fibreglassed all of the starboard side gas locker area and the lower part of the mullion. Fibreglassed the front of the boat on the port side and the edges of the anchor area.
30/10/2026 - Fibreglassed the top of the mullion after Trev sanded the undercoat back where the fibreglass had to go. Fibreglassed under the anchor area. Fibreglassed both sides of the shower wall. Fibreglass the back along the bridgedeck edge and underneath stringer ends that he cut off previously.
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