We put the first coat of primer/ high build filler on the hull today, which went fairly well. Although we need to play with our spray gun setup and try to get more of a "Wet coat" effect as we had a fairly dry/dusty effect coming from the gun, which took quite a long time to get a decent coat over the boat. On the next coat we might try the larger nozzle size (2.0mm) as opposed to the 1.4mm size on the current setup as well as adding more than 10% thinner to the primer.

We are planing to the spray the colour next weekend.

Hull laminating has been essentially completed, decks and side tanks are laminated in place as are all the hard points for fittings. At this point the hull weighed in at 41kg the minimum weight for the class is 51kg. This gives us 10kg for paint, filler and fittings.

I have worked out that i need 1.5L of (Waratah Red) colour paint for the hull, deck and side tanks and 0.25L for the white floor so i have ordered a bit more than this for wastage and spare paint in the event we need to do a significant repair down the track.



So far we have two three coats of "bog" (thickened epoxy resin with Q-cells) over the hull and "torture" boarded two of these coats and already the hull is look a lot nicer and fairer. Once we are happy with the shape or "fairness" of the hull we will spray a two part primer/filler to fill any left over small holes. Then we will be onto the final paint topcoats.

We have already ordered a new high modulus rig from CST and approx $1500 worth of pulleys, cleats and fittings from Ronstan. At this stage we are planing to be at the first state titles rounds in mid October in some form or another. Although there is still a lot of work to do associated with the centreboard case, vang system and fit out.

side tanks are in!

Hi all,
Finally its starting to look like a boat!Side tanks have been glued in and laminated into place. The port tank will act as a spinnaker chute, helping to keep a clean cockpit and the stb tank will be a bouancy tank.
(this is a view down the spinnaker chute from the bow)

All of the hard points have been laminated into place, which is 5mm thick fibreglass plate, with approx 4 layers of carbon over it on the floor. These will then be drilled and tapped for an M5 or M6 bolt to attach fittings.
After re-weighing the hull with the following; sides glued in, foredeck on, gantry in the boat. The hull came in at 39.5kg which isn't bad, but i doubt that we will make the 45kg lower limit for the class (hmm that 6kg's of lead would have been good!)
This is an image of me trying to work out how to mount our vang system. The blue pen lines are a radius out from the centre of the mast, while the other lines are different layouts of connecting the system. The lay-out above with the green string appeared to follow an arc from the centre of the mast the best, meaning that when we was our main out and out boom angle increased the distance between the mast and boom vang will remain the same, giving a constant boom vang tension. This whole set-up will be discussed in more detail once it has been built