As we finish up the exterior of the whole boat now, there’s a short list of ‘modernization modifications’ that should be done because better ideas have come along since this build began nearly 20 years ago.

The six foot bowsprit gets a bobstay from the end of the pole down to the bow of the main hull just above the waterline. We have a stainless steel u-bolt installed to carry this big load as the spinnaker pulls up and forward. But the u-legs are not in line with the force, and the backing plate is measly. Over time, and probably way out on an ocean, this will become trouble.

First we tried removing the fitting, but the epoxy was bonded around the threads so this thing was never coming out. We cut and ground it below the surface and entombed the legs and nuts in the new reinforcements. The new hole was cut about a half inch aft of the point where the hull sides meet to form the bow stem. The tube shape is a 1-1/4″ PVC pipe.

Inside it got a wedge of high density putty that makes a solid wall, then uni fabrics to spread the load, take over for the PVC, and tie the two hull sides together. The access was tough, reaching just far enough inside the watertight crash bulkhead.

Then from the outside we ran strips of uni through the tube and radiated the ends out around the hull about 4″ on both sides of the boat. Three extra layers of uni glass were laid along the pull direction, and that’s what made a bulge on the bow stem just above the new hole height.

Then some ‘finish cloth’ bidirectional 6 oz was added to tie it all together before fairing.
Here’s the work in progress after two fairing passes.

The new bow hole seems plenty strong to better distribute the sails’ force, and no chance of leaky and fatiguing metal. Feels like ten hours well spent.

And here are the photos I mentioned last week about saving some $ on more metal fittings. These are the attachment points for the nets up at the bow, by the anchor. Sort of mini versions of the story above.

The exterior punch list is almost done, and we’ll get back to the cabin build by late next week.

This little pile of fiberglass fabric doesn’t look so bad, right? It started the day headed in to the floats to glass in the chainplates.

But crawling around inside these outer float hulls in the dark with no soles (floors) and stoop over headroom makes for a challenging day. The builder gets to do a circus acrobat move to get thru the bulkhead opening seen in this shot.

These lamps got the air temp to about 120 and the radiant heat was well in to the 160 range without trying to put this 35′ boat in to that auto paint booth we saw the other day! So it’s a localized heat post curing process inside the floats. The other side is under the lamps as this is written, with a sore back and various bruises. Boat bit back a little today, but she now has very strong anchor points for the 50′ mast.
Here’s that finished chainplate from forward, facing aft:

And from aft, looking forward. The glass looks a bit green in these photos – that’s the look of the resin still in curing / hardening mode. In a few days it will go basically colorless.

Five days of work, and all most people will ever see are these innocuous little stubs on deck:

With a bit of shaping around the base, the Colligo “Terminators” fit right in. The last step is some lightweight finish glass cloth around the fitting up on deck – that’s a tiny job in the scheme of this project, so we’re pretty relieved tonight.

Looking over the master to-do list, seems we’ve past the milestone of completing major structural builds. The chainplates had been looming, and the rest is non-load bearing / furniture type stuff, then fairing,sanding and prepping for paint.

The purchase order for the sails went in this week. They should be built during March, and delivered before the boat is launched. Keith Burrage of Skateaway Designs and I have gone over the measurements many times and he’s got a really exciting sail plan for the boat. This is so much better than the earlier assumption that we had to launch first with used crappy Craigslist sails and wait months before a sailmaker came to the new boat, took measures and went away to build. Instead, the drawing is done and we’re ahead of the loft rush during winter for Maine Sailing Partners. We even get to pick three colors for the radial cut Reacher! Jeanne, get the colored pens out for options…

Seems to be a theme around here right now – make sturdy bases for the sail rigging. This takes many forms.

Keith pointed out that the cap shroud chainplates as shown last week really should be swiveled 20 degrees off the centerline so the pull against the big clevis pin would be directly in line with the mast. He’s right, and this is another small improvement modification beyond the decade-old F39 plans.
Cutting that bulkhead slot was tricky last week, but a $2 short blade for the sawzall made the extra 20 degree slice easy.

So now the plates fit at the new angle.

Next up is a place to attach the twin mainsheets. Remember these are arranged in an inverted Vee off the boom, eliminating a traditional traveller. So we want the lower mainsheet blocks far outboard for good sail control. Again, not in the plans so we thought up this:
Big sturdy triangles glued and bolted to the hull side. First make a mold for the carbon fiber layup:

The rod made it easy to rotate the piece as ten layers of various fabric orientations went on. This thing should be plenty strong.

It was cut in two, and the form knocked away after this next photo. Tomorrow morning it joins the other pieces headed for the post-cure oven.

And here’s roughly how it’ll go on the hull:

Gotta get up early to load things for the big oven post cure bright and early Monday. Stay tuned!