So, the last few weeks have seen the watertanks finally completed, new chainplate members glassed in and the torture of the gunwhale routing finished.
The tanks took a little longer than I had thought, but I believe the results are worth it. My measurements show we should get about 270 litres per side (I think that means about 120 Imperial gallons total, or 135 of those funny US gallons). Breathers will exit up the mast, which should work nicely. There will be another, smaller tank installed to take watermaker production, which in turn will cascade down to the main tanks when full.
The forward and cap chainplates will connect to laminated plywood which has been bonded to the hull, reaching down to the top of the tank and more or less lining up with the tank baffles. This area of the boat should be a lot more rigid than the original, especially with the new bulkheads which are close to the cap chainplates.
The forward cabin has had sealed plywood glued to both the deck and to the sides of the coachroof. We used bendy ply, especially useful for the coachroof sides where we needed to fair the roof into the sides. This has given us a surface that is able to be painted, it won't be completely fair but it will look OK we think. Time will tell.
The forward end of the coachroof was the most difficult and we had to put a few judicious slits in the ply to accommodate the multiple curves. It will require a bit more fairing but should be the worst part of the job, everything else "should" be easier.
The bulwarks under where the genoa tracks will be have been routed out and the fiberglass bar has arrived. Routing out a 20 x 25mm slot 3.5 m long was not pleasant and I blew up one Ryobi router. Still, with the price difference between that and a new Makita, I will be able to blow up another 4.5 Ryobi routers and still be ahead. We are ready to epoxy the bars in place, with LOTS of spare glue to force down the large voids in the bulwarks, where the hull and deck were supposed to be joined (but weren't).
Pretty close to epoxying up the fairlead areas, after I removed the damp and/or rotting wood. I need to look at the original method of securing the fairleads in place as it is not particularly effective. Many of the screws holding the fairleads in did not actually land in anything, which has led to water getting in.
We have finished preparing the area between the forward end of the engine room and the mast. This involved another unpleasant afternoon grinding back to clean fibreglass but we were a lot better prepared than last time and it went far more quickly.
Once that area was ready we glassed the keel over with chopped strand mat and vinylester resin, ready for diesel, water and holding tanks.
Then Bill cut the new bulkhead out and this has now been glassed in place. Before we could do this we needed to cut the forward ends off the engine bearers and we filled the cut-outs in the front. The engine beds will be self-contained and any spilt fluids will stay in there and not be rinsed over any other parts of the boat.
The hole for the old engine instruments has been stripped back and the new bulkhead is now attached to both the front end of the cockpit and the engine bearers. It will be a great improvement over the old bulkhead that was not attached to the deckhead.
While I have been scratching my head and working out where the new tanks will fit under the floor, Bill has been rebuilding the cockpit floor, which was extremely flexible. The 6 layers of new glass and 24mm of plywood should provide some sound insulation as well as providing somewhere to screw things on above the engine.
