First Side Panels Fitted

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15/7/2025 - We picked up the sides, deck & window panels from ATL.

16/7/2025 - Trev decided to have a little play while I was out and put up the side windows and one of five front windows and mullions plus lowered the roof down.  Of course none of that will happen for a while but it gets you all excited. 🥳

24/7/2025 - Trev hooked up endless chains today, added timber to sit the side panels on and made little blocks to hold the side panels close to the hull. We lifted one of the side front pieces up to check if needed grooves cut to bend at the nose. It did.  So lowered that, cut the grooves and placed it on the Port side.  Carried in the next one cut the grooves and it was for the Starboard side.  Removed the peel ply from the inside and both now ready to lift and hopefully get glued on tomorrow if all goes to plan.

25/7/2025 - Dry fitted the starboard side front side panel I think 3 times and cut out lines in the back to get the front section to take the curve.  It's always trial and error on the first one and that makes the second one a lot quicker.

Once we got it right we mixed up the thickened epoxy and spread that on all the bulkhead edges and along the rail. Winched the panel up and glued it, clamped it, screwed it and coved it.  Had lunch and back out to do the port side.  Had a little mishap with the saw but nothing the thickened epoxy resin can't fix. 😵‍💫🫣😳 A few choice words also helps. 😱  Got that side all glued, clamped, screwed and coved and a few extra tabs. 😅. So now we have the two front outside panels on.  

Next we will tape that all in with a layer of 400 and a layer of 600 double bias fibreglass.  

Hopefully from hear on I will get these videos out bi-weekly - that's the plan anyway.  We will see what transpires. 

SURPRISE 😳😄

For the last three days I have come in and uploaded the days footage and as we will be having a few days off from the boat I wanted to get this up.

27/7/2025 - Trev sanded and trimmed the front of the panel level while I cut fibreglass ready to tape the bulkheads to the side panel glued on, on Friday.

28/7/2025 - Taped the front 4 (not 3) sections on both port and starboard sides.

Fibreglassed the two triangular pieces that go up the front and close in the single bed area with a layer of 415 uni and 600 double bias.  Fibreglassed the cut off piece from friday's little accident. 

29/7/2025 - Prep'd the pieces to make the sealed off section & fitted them ready to glue and tape in.  Trimmed the edges on the triangular pieces and fitted, making adjustments where needed and then cutting them at 700mm high into two pieces so that we can reach and tape them in.  Did this on both port and starboard sides - Glued in the sealing pieces and taped them and glued on the bottom of the triangular pieces and taped those in.

30th & 31st - Relative in hospital at Armidale - so we had a trip up there and a stay overnight, then home.  So glad we did - snowed at Guyra and freezing up there.

01/08/2025 - Back home and back to working on the inside of the bow.  We pulled the coved section down with a bit of difficulty - had to cut and sand edges on both the port and starboard sides to get it out.  Did a bit of extra sanding on the edges to make sure it would go back in easy enough with glue on the edges.

Glued up the point of the triangle and taped the first two sections in. Glued up the coved section and screwed everything in place and gilled in gapes and coves.  Fibreglassed everything that needed taping except the section that joins the cove at the bottom.  Taped all the other wall bits to the bulkheads at the end of the queen bed area.  One side down one to go. 

2/8/2025 - When the power went out after wild winds and rain.

3/8/2025 - Cold and miserable still no power.

4/8/2025 - Still no power - good opportunity to get the lawns done. I cleaned windows.  Thank goodness we had a generator for the freezers and fridge.

5th - 7th - Me - Back to Glen Innes.  Power out till around 6pm Tuesday evening. Trev home worked on the front bow shape - trying to soften the flat nose a bit. Put conduit in for the gas line to the stove and hotplates.  On the other side the conduit will be for whatever we need there probably 240 for shore power.Bit of fairing and sanding. Cut and glued in the wedge shaped section on the single bed to front bridgedeck.  The poor weathercock flew off the shed and needed a few repairs.

8/8/2025 - Mocked up the anchor and anchor roller and chain again as well a the. pipe the chain runs through to make sure everything with the box was good.  Then cut out and glued pieces of coosa board for the box. Marked out where to cut out for the box section and then cut that out.  Had to cut through the .5 bulkhead but not BHD 1.  Put in a section in the sloping bottom to BHD 1 to make level for the box to sit on.  Slipped the mock up box up to see what it looked like.  My job mainly was to get a crap load of laundry done from before the power outage and clean out a couple of freezers that we didn't keep going.

10/8/25 - Fitted mock up box for the anchor and chain- tried out the anchor.  Ended up working out that the box could be cut of nearly flush without the hook on the anchor hitting under the boat.  Worked out pipe was in the wrong spot and had to cut the holes deeper.  Made up a piece of stainless steel plate with tube nuts ready to weld to plate.   This is to go under the box and up through the bottom of the box to screw the anchor roller too.  Won't be accessable once the deck goes on.

11/8/2025 - Glued port side triangle and cove.  Fibreglassed to bulkheads and finished fibreglassing the BHDs to the sides at the end of queen bed on port side.

Fibreglassed the inside of the anchor roller box with 2 layers of 400 uni and 1 layer of 600 double bias.  Trev cut out more fibreglass for both sides to do the insides of the bows and I started trimming a few citrus trees.

12/8/2025 - Delayed decision made today after talking to Kim Chamberlin our boat designer.  We decided to put in some coosa board to fit pad eyes too for the bridle. Just wished we did this before we put the coves up.  But better to do it now then to decide in a years time that we should have done it.  We set about glueing that board in and fibreglass the inside of the bow.  With multiple layers to join the cove to the front bridgedeck.  The bridgedeck and the front bridgedeck had to have uni layers and extra layers at the join and of course the whole triangular section with 400 Uni and 600 DB.  We also ran two layers of fibreglass dodwn and under the rail.  Trev then made the pad eye plates for the bridle.

13/8/2025 - de ja vu on the port side.

Glued in the piece of coosa board for the pad eye and filled gaps and fibreglassed the inside of the bow on the port side.

Cove to front bridgedeck 3 layers of 600 double bias.

Uni Strips to join the hulls to front bridgedeck - 3 layers towards front and 5 at the join.

3 layers of DB on the join of the teo bridgedecks.

Coosa board got 3 layers - 1 x 600 DB and 2 layers of 400 Uni

The whole triangular area 400 Uni and 600 Db and the rail or flair at the bottom got 2 layers of 600 DB. and Peel ply on the lot.

Trev off to borrow a welder and welded the barrel nuts onto the metal plates for the anchor roller and the pad eyes.

14/8/2025 -Our friend Allan came over from Nambucca where he is holidaying and 

gave Trev a hand.  He marked out where the fibreglass angel was to go in the single beds.  Cut the lengths and they glued those in on both the port and starboard sides. 

THIS IS WHY WE SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT THE PAD EYES EARLIER.

First we drilled holes where the pad eyes will go and then we had to put in 3 layers on the back of the coosa board pieces down inside the hull.  This area will be a sealed off area eventually thats why we need to put in the bolts that are like a barrel so that in the future if we need to replace one we can do it from the outside.  Anyway, we had to work out how I could get down in the hole to fibreglass and then more importantly how to get back out.  We put down a lump of timber on a string and once in, I had to remove it so I had enough space to squat down.  Another two episodes of being in a tight spot.  We got that done and now when that cures we will drill the holes through the layers done today and slip back down in the hull and glue the steel plate with the 4 barrell bolts attached through and fibreglass that in place with two layers of 400 DB. Then the job is done.