Halfway

Both inboard sides have been glassed and two fill coats applied. Tomorrow I'll flip them and do the other sides after a light sanding. Saturday will see biaxial along the keels.

Glassing hulls!

Well turns out Glassing hulls takes forever! Two hours per side each. The only thing good about it is the progress that it represents. I'm doing the port hull inside tomorrow and will do both the outsides on Friday.

Keels

The keels are all sanded smooth and ready for their first layer of 6" tape. I used wood flour and silica for the keel fillets, and they were a major PITA to sand down as a result. However, they are extremely burly and rock solid. I had to go out of town for a wedding this weekend, but I will be back at it on Monday when I plan to lay the tape, fillet sheer stringer undersides, and round off sheerstringers. Hopefully Tuesday will see some hullside glassing!

Well the topsides have been weave filled and sanded. I'd say they are about 80 percent ready for painting. I need to install the hatch coamings for the anchor locker and main hatches before I can paint, and I plan to do this while the hulls are on their sides for glassing. I decided to go with a 19x24 inch main sliding hatch as opposed to the planned design as I think it will be a little more seaworthy for offshore sailing. A dodger is planned as well. Luckily my new shop has a welder next door, so he is probably going to do my dodgers and chainplates if we can work out a cheap deal. Today he helped me flip the hulls to start working on the keels and sides, and I (we) could tell Beto is putting on a few lb's! Today I sanded the keels down and ground down the copper wire remnants. This was followed by filling in the gaps between ply sides and keel strip from the top of the stems to the top of the skegs. Tomorrow I'll sand this fair and possibly apply some tape along the keels. The big thing for tomorrow is rounding off the bottom of sheerstringers and doing mini fillets along their length. If all goes as planned, you should see some glass on hullsides next Tuesday! I'm getting stoked being this close to the finish, and plan to throw down 10 plus hour days till she's launched.

A few bumps here and there from glassing when it was kind of cold and having the hardener kick before we could fully squeegee. All is well, as the areas affected will be coated with thick/bomber Kiwi Grip.

Look at this girl's curvesssssss

New Shop

Well I was able to procure a small warehouse space to finish Beto out! I no longer have to worry about working in the blaring sun or having zero days due to rain. I'll post some new setup pictures tonight or tomorrow, but for now I am just getting everything moved over. Now I can work late at night and basically whenever I want. Stoked. On a side note, I gave my trailer the inaugural run on the interstate, and she tows like a dream.

Topsides are all glassed, and fairing compound has been applied to most surfaces. She's almost ready to flip. I'm stoked to glass the easy, flat surfaces of the hullsides. 

Towing fine

Glassing and Filling

Well I got some tips from the Wharram builders' site on filling the weave. These tips, coupled with new short nap rollers from Raka, have me seeing a much easier time of getting it filled. I did two fill coats on the cabin tops and foredecks today, and I also glassed the aft deck of the port hull. Around the time I finished up, yet another thunderstorm starting looming near with black clouds from the West and increasing wind. It was raining by the time I got home, so it was a good call to quit for the day. The constant rain has been a real progress killer this Spring! The plan for tomorrow is to try and glass the starboard hull aft deck, do another fill coat or two, and do the last set of fillets on the mast beam. That will leave just the cabin sides needing glass before everything (topsides wise) is covered. We are sailing in the Dauphin Island Regatta next week, so the end goal for Wednesday is to have the decks all glassed and filled and ready to flip the hulls.

Thickened with phenolic balloons and some silica, I rolled on two fill coats on foredecks and cabin tops.

Those aren't air bubbles on the toerails. I did two sets of fillets, and the first one was mostly silica, accouting for the white seen in this picture.

Progress

Well I have finally completed the fillets on all three of the crossbeams! It feels pretty good to be done with those guys. Today I glassed the two cabin tops from the front deck all the way up and over and down to the rear deck. I just need to glass the aft decks and cabin top sides at this point, and the tops of the hulls will be completely covered up! Tomorrow I plan to fill in the weave on what I did today, and start final sanding of beams and tillers and rudders. I also bought a little Sunfish to keep me motivated during the final stages, and it's been a real blast so far for booze cruising around on.