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.
Will put up a video once we finish glueing in and fibreglassing the cockpit furniture.
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