A month ago I showed you the sketch and placement of the gas tank, based on the bid request sent off to ATL bladder tank co. The quote came in today; $2560! That’s nuts. The whole engine was less than that. No wonder that company serves government agencies. Oh well. We’ll look in to making a fiberglass tank, custom fit like the toilet tank.

We did spend $450 on a 4’x8′ sheet of smoked-grey Lexan with special scratch resistant coating. This included a minor panic in the Sacramento parking lot when the two 4×4 cut down sheets wouldn’t fit in the car (because someone wanted to drive the sport car, not the truck – duh). I tried to remember the final window height and had them further cut another 14″ on each panel. Fit in the car now, and turned out to be JUST tall enough once back at the shop. Lots of cuts were done:

If anyone else is doing this, here’s the right jig saw blade.

Lining up the windows for drilling was a two person job, taking almost a full day to get it all done right.

These shots show the silhouette of the actual window in the cabin, vs the larger ‘glass’ panels on the outside. We’ve maximized the viewing area from the cabin, honoring structural considerations, trying to get a bit of that open saloon catamaran feel (yeah, Arlene, I don’t want Jeanne to see your beautiful cat’s interior until our boat is done :)

A couple of these windows, plus two on the back cabin, are slated to get opening ports inset over the Lexan. Kind of a floating window within the window. It makes sense when you see it on the nice Benetaus at the boat show.
The new steering setup is coming along; making various parts in carbon and will be able to show it complete soon. We’re also scrapping the complex carbon bowsprit build and ordering a smaller, lighter piece of aluminum – thanks to some sage advice. All good. The only trouble right now is getting in to the 45 degree shop each morning. Hard to get rolling much before 10 right now!