… But in a good way. The underwater portion of the hull is almost done with fairing. Each square foot done with the big sander this week is a completed step, and there’s just the last 8′ or so at the stern to finish up tonight. Very much looking forward to painting, instead of sanding, the bottom of the boat.

Just above the waterline we’re finishing up those beam brace tang fairings. The stack-and-glue foam was rough shaped with a wide blade on the multi tool.

Then the flapper disk on the grinder, and finally a sander to smooth out the shape.

The white ring on the sander is glue gun residue. That gummed up the sander quickly – could have done more spot-glueing instead of continuous beads to lessen the glue sanded.

Here’s the outer fiberglass lamination. This process worked well: spread epoxy on the boat and let that get tacky while the fabrics are prepping. Lay out a transport plastic (an old bag here). Wet out the two layers of glass cloth and cover the outside face with peel ply. Carry the whole package to the hull and hold it in place, then reach behind and start pulling away the transport plastic. This way there’s actually no touching of the wet fabric, and no distortion.

We did the first one with a vacuum bag but found it wasn’t necessary – the other three worked just fine with plain hand layup.
Here we are with a first layer of fairing putty.

And here after a sanding pass and second coat added. These will get sanded again, and fairing touch ups tomorrow night if needed. With that, all the main hull fabrications will finally be DONE! Through the holidays we’ll do any more needed little fairing touch ups, and get the first of the primer started.

Well as you probably noticed, the boat shop went dark for a month while the builder hit the road. First was a week in South Africa for business. These guys stood by the car on a quick visit to a city park in Pretoria…

Right after that flight home we acquired a decent little used trailer and drove out to Colin’s place in Virginia for Thanksgiving. We are those weirdos on the freeway with the dogs and the cat standing on our laps.

New Mexico was a highlight; weather great for achy joints and a nice place for a boat shop some day…

And so, we pick up the story with the last hull finishing project – sealing and strengthening the beam strut hull braces. For years they have been pressed up against the cradle, inaccessible for the necessary fiberglass work.

It’s time to lift the hull and slide the cradle forward. First the bow –

Then the stern, using the permanent plates which are the terminals for the aft beam horizontal braces. These posts sit atop bottle jacks.

If you flip your computer over you see we get the clearance needed to slide the cradle. I think this is how we’ll transfer the finished hull to the boat trailer for transport to the launch Marina.

Now we have clear access around the brace-to-hull joint, ready for finishing.

First step is fillets on both sides and 1708DBM tape for strength.

This evening structural foam was glue-gunned in and tomorrow all four of these pods will get shaped in to “fairings”. Will attack with little saws and the flapper disk on the angle grinder before a final sanding.
And yes, multiple ouches accidentally touching the hot glue!