coachroof and side deck

159 days

This has been an exciting week with progress on many fronts. Although I'm sure progress is probably fairly steady from week to week there are some times when the boat appears to accelerate towards completion.

I have been finishing off the deck planking which is all down now. Every screwhole has to be plugged , and this has nearly all been completed by John Sampson who came up to view progress about 10 days ago and got roped into helping. Thanks John. Next we have to caulk the seams with caulking cotton in the same way that we did the hull planking, and then the seams are finished off with sikaflex which is a black rubbery polyurethane product.

As you can see from the picture Mark has been busy putting up the corner posts and coamings ( sides ) of the coachroof. The holes for the portholes ( four per side ) have been cut and you can get a really good idea of how it'll look when finished.

Down below Barnaby has made a good start on the rudder. It's looking really good with a tapered blade and an oval stock. The trailing edge has been left as a straight line to enable the addition of a trim tab for self steering gear at some time in the future. You can see a picture in the hull gallery.