All four big crossbeams are back down on the ground, clogging up the workshop with a big push to get them faired and finished (then protective wrapped and stored away in back). The last building step is to form the net lashing rails. Earlier we saw some photos of the PVC pipe being affixed to the starboard hulls/beams. Now the fiberglass is going on – these layers will sit under the final wrap layer that ties the fairing to the beam. See the grey pipe under two layers of glass…

I got to visit Andy Miller’s F22 for a progress report. He’s nearly done painting; a fancy two tone job with hot yellow below the gunwale and white on deck. Here is the finished product of the net lashing rails. What’s not seen is a 1/4″ rod slid inside the tube. The slots give access points where you run a small line around the exposed rod and back to the net lacing.

Can’t quite see his yellow hull as it was masked off during my visit, but the yellow rudder, tiller, etc. look great.

Having a floor full of huge beams and yet another suggestion of using a bandsaw for finish work, it became time for a weekend of evening housekeeping. We moved a big pile of various parts into better storage corners, and finally tackled the problem of no dedicated vacuum bagging space. Repurposing scraps (beam mold box sides, etc) yielded a really nice dedicated bagging table, separate from my big table at the shop front.

And around the other side of the boat bow we found a little corner for what’s soon to be a dusty, productive mess of shavings as the new little bandsaw and table sander get set up by the drill press, router and chopsaw. The big Bosch table saw is on wheels and has proven a fantastic purchase – that stays up front to handle large sheets and rips.

I expect to get a lot of work done thru the holidays as business travel stops. And A LOT done in early 2014 – more on that development to be reported soon :)

Happy Christmas, everybody. If we can’t be out sailing in warm breezes, at least lets have some fun with families and maybe some afternoons getting the boat(s) ready for spring!