Merry Christmas to you Rolf!

I really enjoy reading about the progress you have made each couple of weeks. Glad too that it won't be long before you can start on the 'other half' of each hull. I think that once you've got even one pairofhalves joined and bulkheaded you'll start to feel so much better about the project. Great work!

But I am having a great time now. It was harder last spring when I realised there would be no cat sailing that summer and not much building either (wifey projects). Cleaning up the workshop and investing in a proper vacuum cleaner also helped a lot on motivation to get down there at night.

Plan is to NOT assemble the halves into hulls before we have all parts. Only when we have the parts to go into the hulls will we do that. Assembled hulls take a lot of room vs. stacked panels, and we need to keep the drive on! Hope I get to pull panel 6 off the mould during christmas!

I sometimes tries to put the project into perspective. Building a strip plank kayak is a major project for many, we have done the equivalent of about five of those. On the other hand, compared to building a large boat or a house, this is peanuts..

Richard,
Does this make you feel better.
Helps in finishing after planing scarf joints.

Hm, the last time i scarfed plywood, I sanded the whole scarf for lack of a good plane.

Is that a small void I see in the scarf in the top sheet? Is that "real" BS1088 ply? Do you know if the middle layer is also gaboon/okume?

Rolf,
You seem to be able to see something in the photo that I didn't see in the workshop. Having said that the ply we get here now comes out of China and it is not as good as the stuff I used to get out of Holland.
Still, I'll see if I can make the silk purse from a sow's ear.
Regards,
Phill

The fat from the christmas food might have gone to my eyes.. Good luck with the purse. Leather can be very nice if worked long enough.

Rollf,
I will work it as long as needed but with the backlog of projects I have I can't take too long.

Hi Phill
I think you are just stirring now
I don't think there is any sand paper on on it, just trying to get a good picture

In three days, we have busted our DeWalt circular saw and our chineese beltsander. We are making good progress, but breaking equipment is a downer. Ref: http://woodastic.blogspot.com/

Well Phill, if you thought the belt sander was bad, you will be interested to hear that I did parts of panel #5 with an angle grinder and a coarse cleaning pad
I used it to remove most of the epoxy on the panel left after gluing the strips. Quick and easy, and not too risky either in my opinion. Sanding with the beltsander and the foam pad was much quicker and I got down to the stage where I can begin using a fairing board pretty quick compared to earlier. Not for the faint of heart or the Zen builder though

Did a test beam in glass this weekend. Great fun, even if I started way to late in the evening.

Full report here:
http://woodastic.blogspot.com/2009/05/first-tube-test.html

Next, plank panel #7 and do a hull assembly. Will be exciting to see if they match up after flipping the stations over. Then on to get moulds for foils and ruddersystem done. Hopefully somebody sends me a package he have had ready for shipping some months now so we can get that task done as well

Rolf returns from the dusty workshop and this thread is alive again!!

Some rather large steps since the last update.. To phrase myself in a properly understated way.

Latest developments


I also have a proper sewing machine on order for the trampoline and sails! First time I'll be building sails with a sewing machine actually intended for that (ab)use.


So.. Who else are builing stuff out there in F16 land?