Are you sitting 'Comfortably'

[phil_kirk]

Great attention to detail.  Sounds like you will have a robust and light boat at the end of it.  Well done.

[Tim Noyce]

As promised here are a few photos of the updates.

Firstly a photo since we removed the peel ply on the underside of the wings. This should stiffen up the join where the wing extensions were added and also replaces the laminate which I sanded through in order to get to the hidden paint! You can't see the little spots where we stiffened up the hull, but we are very pleased with how it has turned out.

I carefully removed the stump in order to get access to the floor underneath it, just to check that all was in order there. Didn't want to beef up the floor only to find out that there was some soggy foam underneath! All seems pretty stiff and solid under there so that is a result.

In order to fix the crack in the floor under the foredeck I routed out to remove the top skin and also the foam, and then cut round to leave a nice ledge to bond in the replacement panels which are coming from a fresh sheet of foam. The 'crack' actually turned out to be a join in 2 pieces of foam which hadn't been bonded together properly and so there was a near 4mm wide gap where the skins were unsupported and had turned into a bit of a colander.  Kate kindly helped to template the holes so that we could laminate up the replacement panels from home as the whole sheet of foam is just too big to try and transport with the Punto!

This evening I have laminated the new panels, made the template for the new transom beam and also scratched my head a lot about how to make the sheet of foam stretch far enough to do everything we need from it! Patchwork foredeck here we come!

[Tim Noyce]

More pics...

[roland_trim]

Looking excellent. Keep going you'l

[Tim Noyce]

Had a productive lunchtime, I managed to acquire near enough a square metre of 15mm 80kg foam for less than the price of a quiet night out so that has solved my foam defficiency for the time being! If you go to a boat builder who makes big boats... it figures that their offcuts selection will be larger!

[Tim Noyce]

Sticking with the little and often principle I stopped in at the boat on the way home last night (it's a nice little half way break on my 18 mile cycle commute) and completed a few tasks which needed to be done before the floor holes could be patched up.

I put in a bog fillet to attach the central piece of floor to the spine as this was obviously an unsighted splodge and splat join when the floor was attached first time round and also glassed in the wooden king post. I couldn't 100% decide if it was already glassed in, but it seemed to take a while to dry out so thought another layer wouldn't hurt in any case!

When I got home I cut out my new floor panels so they are ready to be stuck into the boat tomorrow. A rare evening off boat works tonight as it is mine and Kates second anniversary! How time flies!

[Tim Noyce]

Been a bit busy with other stuff again just recently but managed to get to the boat last night and bonded in the new transom cross beam. The new blister tank floor is now in place and seemingly water tight so that is a great relief to be able to start thinking about putting the new foredeck on.

In the background I have modelled up a new mast foot and mast step which I had CNC machined this week. The stump/king post and mast are both Angel 600 masts and so the machined parts share the same outside diameter. They are machined from Ertalyte which is a high quality engineering grade plastic.

Tonight there will be some shaping of transom foam and trimming of gantrys to fit before another weekend off! Must make the most of the evenings during the week!

[Tim Noyce]

Couple of updates from last night. Kate has been shaping our lovely new transom beam and it is now bogged into position. Tonights plan is to prepare it for some black stuff as it seems a bit weak as it is 

[roland_trim]

Properly artistic. Are you planning on foam/glassing over the old hatch covers as well?

[Tim Noyce]

I should apologise for my recent lack of updates on the boat progress. Don't be fooled into thinking that this is because I have not been doing anything.... it is actually because it feels like I have not been doing anything BUT the boat! Not sure I realised at the start of this project quite how many hours would be absorbed by this delightful little boat!

In my last installment I had just stuck the floor in under the foredeck and bogged the new foam transom into position. Since then I have:

- Laminated the transom
- Installed the new gantry
- Put in a new stump/kingpost
- Stiffened up the spaceframe
- Built a new kite chute
- Moulded some new kick bars
- Laminated a new foredeck
- Smeared a lot of fairing bog
- Sanded off a lot of fairing bog
- Smeared some more fairing bog
- Sanded off some more fairing bog

Last night I laminated on the d-rings for the kicker and the rear bridle and sanded the side decks with 400grit ready for some paint. My last bit of structural work to do is the attachment of the jib track which will be made more difficult by the fact that I have decided to clear coat the foredeck and so splatting it on and fairing it won't really be an option!

I've attached a few pics of progress along the way. Hopefully the next update it will be a different colour!

[Tim Noyce]

few more pics...

[Ben Howett]

Good work Tim! Looking forward to seeing the old girl in paint!

[Tim Noyce]

First bit of paint on tonight. What a relief,  amazing how much better it looks already!

[Tim Noyce]

OK, many hours of boat work have passed and now the boat is sat down at HISC ready to finally go sailing tomorrow. Couple of pics from today and I will update some more of the build pics after the nationals.

[Clive Everest]

It looks even better in the carbon