Passion XI

In the ten days since the last post I have made steady progress helped by a few crew who devoted several hours to sanding both inside and outside the hull.

Before that the furniture in the galley and quarter berth ante room had been fitted and the filleting of the bulkheads to the skin completed.

An unexpected task was to extend the gussets on the rudder port out another 200 mm each side and fix in with four layers of 450 gram double bias epoxy glass. This was a change Dudley had advised back in September 2002 but which had slipped my mind until Dudly gently reminded me via a request for an updated photo. I promptly did the change and sent out the photo but it took the best part of two days to fit the gussets and then glass them in place in the upside down position. Once the hull is turned I will add more glass around the port and the strongback for appearance sake and to tidy up the finish on the glass.

Last Wednesday was another steady result on the water with Passion X. We won the race on the run to the top mark by an inside overlap on Allegro but an override on the mainsheet winch stopped us following the fleet inshore where they picked a big lift. Despite dropping a few positions we sailed well to make up ground and finish with a 4th place on handicap. It was another good result in strong winds with a reef in the main and the No 3 jib.

This coming week looks like a complete change to a drift but there is still a few days to go.

After the crew assistance with sanding I decided to get a little more aggressive with the torture board on the last four coats of epoxy primer to remove the remaining uneveness in the bottom panels. I had roller coated the bottom due to the wind conditions and that needed more sanding than the sprayed sides. Also I had overlapped the four sprayed coats from the sides with the four coats on the bottom around the radius chine so on the radius chine I had a lot of paint to help with the fairing.
On the bottom the design has three layers of 450 gram double bias glass along the centre line and each layer is wider than the next to achieve a taper from the glassed section to the unglassed section. Now the glass is 1.5 mm thick as a minimum and the taper was not over a wide enough area to remove the appearance of a hollow along the keel line. While this was by design I decided to use the opportunity of an aggressive torture boarding to take off the glass high spots and fill the long hollows. Three days later the bottom is bogged up ready for a final fairing and another two coats of epoxy primer hopefully in more favourable wind conditions.

We had a lovely time sailing to Newcastle and Port Stephens for Sail Port Stephens, a good regatta and a pleasant transit back home via an overnight stop in Pittwater. Along with preparing Passion X for the trip with an engine service and provisioning the event took up two weeks.
This year’s Newcastle to Port Stephens race was our best result on ORCi club since launch. I have removed the Code Zero from the rating and that helped a little and we were pleased to finish mid fleet. On Scratch we were tenth and just a few seconds behind the J111 Black Sheep and a couple of minutes in front of the Farr 30 Nocleks. The reaching leg suited Passion X and we were unable to repeat the performance in the regatta at Port Stephens. We were however mightly pleased with our fifth place.

One day back and the RANSA Winter Wednesday started. With a strong north westely breeze the course had two long reaching legs which again suited Passion X. Initally the two sports boats blasted away for a sizeable lead at the top mark while we rounded with Amante. The positions held up to the turn in Rose Bay when we started beating to windward. Amante leapt ahead but we performed well in the conditons with the No3 jib and a reef in the mainsail. Before long we had overtaken the over powered sports boats and maintained our break on the fleet. The second fastest to Amante and first on handicap was a pleasing result but the handicapper penalised us a full percentage which came into play this week.

This week the breeze was a more traditional West South West with a broader reach up and a work all the way back. After a good start we lost the wind out wide and never fully recovered . We did manage to round the top mark with Allegro, Crosshaven and Amante. Love Byte and Alibi were also in the mix making the rounding very tricky.

We worked back doggerdly picking up yachts as we could and were pleased to pass the Sydney 38 and the First 40 and make up ground on Monkey Magic but at the finish we were seventh fastest and last of a group of four who finished within one minute. Indeed we were on corrected time only a minute and two seconds off of third place.

Well done Foreign Affairs and Meridian for leading the fleet home.

Including today I have had only 8 working days in three weeks so it is no wonder progress seems slow sdo what have we done.

The transom boarding platform was closed off on 14th April. Then I started on the galley furniture completing the panels for the fridge and oven compartments and then started on the chart table. We then left the chart table skeleton while we enjoyed Sail Port Stephens.

On return I reworked the supports for the hull after the turnover. To accommodate the wider hull the supports had to be reshaped and the reworked support surface reglassed to the plywood frame. That is mostly done and sitting next to the building jig.

The skeleton of the chart table was causing me some headaches and I mean that literally as I hit my head on the sharp edges so I was highly motivated to complete the structure and round all the appropriate surfaces. That I did but not before destroying a router bit and taking a small nick out of the plywood. It is all repaired and complete except for the lid on the table and the top of the navigator’s seat.

A lot of painting later the components of the galley and quarter berth lockers are double coated and ready to install. That I am hoping to do tomorrow so that I will have something to show for my efforts.

Coating both sides of the locker fronts takes a minimum of three days as while I can do both sides in a day the coating is not hard enough to sand the following day so they have to be left the extra day to harden. Mix that up with wet weather and other obligations and it seems like time is standing still.

Not wanting to waste any mixed epoxy I have a large area of the V berth primed and sanded ready to take a second coat in the event any paint is unused but sadly the paint is running out on the jobs at hand and the V beths are still in their first coat state.

There are miriad tasks to complete before the hull can be turned. All the joins in the hull have been inspected and any gaps filled with thickened epoxy. All the ply joins have been double glassed and most of the hull to bulkhead joins have been filleted. Just the deck locker and transom area have to have the filleting completed. Once this is done I will finish priming the interior so that after turning it will be protected from any adverse weather events.

The weather has been kinder the last week and with sailing in recess for Easter I have made good progress on the internal fit out of Passion XI.

Over Easter Elaine and I spent a day on Passion X cleaning and preparing for the trip to Newcastle and Port Stephens. The water pump impeller was replaced just in time as a rubber blade on the impeller fell off as I extracted it from the housing. Otherwise it was a pleasant day with drinks in the afternoon with fellow sailors also doing post season cleaning on their adjacent yacht.

Back at the building site the head components have been painted and mostly installed. The partial bulkhead is bogged to the hull and secured with the vanity shelves and the hanging locker front. The vanity shelves are bogged to the hull skin and all that is needed is to paint the bare patches adjacent to the glue joins. But there is more. I still have to install the head pedestal platform which is a bit tricky as it is wider than the adjacent vanity wall so I need to install the vanity front across the base to have a place to land the pedestal platform.

Both the quarter berth locker fronts are installed as of today with just some painting needed to finish that area.

Forward in the quarter berth ante room a partial bulkhead has been installed separating the hanging locker from a set of shelves. These are all bogged to the hull and as solid as a rock with just some epoxy paint needed over the shelves to finish the job. I have a sheet of 6 mm plywood picked out from which I will cut the fronts for these two lockers possibly tomorrow.

Forward of the Quarter berths is the galley where the partial bulkhead has been cut and fitted. Cleats have been added to this and to the adjacent bulkheads to take the side and floor of the fridge compartment and the floor of the oven recess. I ran out of mixed epoxy primer today so did not get to prime this bulkhead so that is a few days away from completion. The same 6 mm ply sheet will give me the fridge base and the stove base.

There is just one more partial bulkhead to cut and that is the small chart table seat. I have cut template and am waiting for the right size offcut from the above 6 mm ply sheet to put that in train.

With all the bulkheads cut I sorted through my large array of cardboard templates and earmarked them for the rubbish bin.

An important task to complete before turning is the boarding platform and today I cut the platform and also the doublers for under the centre where the boarding ladder will be secured. The full thickness will be 36 mm so that should take 32 mm screws quite safely.

I will try to insert a few photos in a separate post.

Since the site was hacked I have had multiple problems with posts. One of the issues was that my phone started saving photos is a hjgh definition mode that was not recognised by WordPress. That has been fixed by setting the phone to JPEG only.

Another issue is the appearance of the photos on the site as they do not present as consistently as before. I am not sure if this is a WordPress issue or an update to the Photo app on the computer which rezises photos in a different way.

So this is an attempt to get some photos up and learn by doing.

After a glitch in the internet access to the blog has been restored. I still have some repair to do to the last two posts but hopefully this post will bring you up to date.
My last post was back on 18th February when the first coat of epoy primer had been applied. It took ten days to apply the next three coats with lost of torture boarding in between and a few patched of thin filler.

It took another seven days to mark the boot top and apply four coats of red Interprotect on top of two coats of undercoat.

While this was going on I pushed on with painting the interior of cupboards and the backs of the cupboard fronts.

One of the more time consuming tasks was cutting the holes in the bulkheads and shelves for the water tanks filler and breather and for the electrical circuits. Each hole had to be treated with two coats of epoxy and then a coat of paint to ensure that all the plywood end grain is thoroughly sealed. The hardest holes were the ones through the chainplate frames which had five layers of glass at the junction of the frame with the hull. Owing to the overlapping of layes of glass around the ring frame the glasss was 7 mm thick on the forward face and 3.5 mm thick on the aft face so a new ultra sharp hole cutter was needed.

Another three weeks passed because we extended the No 3 stringer from the bulkhead back to the frame in the mid saloon. That meant bonding the stringer elements to the above mentioned ultra strong epoxy glass coated chainplate frame. In the process all the paint had to be stripped from the line of the stringer, the stringer elements glued and the ends filleted to the frames with ultra strong fillets. Once that was done it was time to redo the two pack epoxy paint and also coat the chainplate frames for the first time.

Before fitting the settee backs I installed the water inlet and breather hoses for the two 450 litres water tanks. I tried using the same brand hose as on Passion x but in the intervening seven years I must have lost some strenght as I found the task impossible and purchased a slightly larger diameter and softer hose which was perfect for the task.

The settee backs have been in for a few days now and all the joins were back filled with structural adhesive while the glue joins were fresh. I masked the glue join lines to keep the plwood clean and the extra care was worth the effort.

Now I have left the saloon behind and moved to the head vanity and quarter beth lockers. There are many more cupboards on the new Didi 120 as the extra 200 mm with on both sides provides ample opportunity for more storage spaces. The downside is that this takes more time.

Of course every partial bulkhead for a furniture element is another bulkhead to drill for the electical and water services as well as the engine exhaust so it will take a while to finish the timber work, bog the shelves to the hull and paint the interiors before attaching more locker fronts with pre painted backs.

I will insert more photos when I can. At the time of writing WordPress will not let me access the latest photo uploads.

On the design front the yacht design has passed the structural review and the design is on the process of being listed with World Sailing. More about this good news with links when it is up on their web page.

Friday was a late finish as it was ideal weather for painting the epoxy primer. I still has a couple of patches to fill but rather than delay the primer I filled the patches and painted around the filled area.
I used a high volume low pressure spray to apply the Interprotect epoxy primer and this worked well until some hardened primer blocked the spray gun. My attempts to clear it were unsuccessful so I finished applying the last section of the flat bottom with a roller and by 6:15pm I had covered the hull and used up all of the eight litres of mixed paint.

Now that is just the first coat as I have three more to apply .

Inside the hull I have applied the first coat to the V beth lockers and started to paint the V berth themselves. This means hand sanding the stringers and the inside of the radius chine so I have been happy for the odd rainy day when the conditions under the hull are tolerable for sanding and for painting. Two coats of a satin finish high build epoxy primer will give a pleasant finish to the interior of the lockers and the underside or the VG berth bunks.

These shelves in the V berth lockers are so much deeper than on Passion X and the top side and underside of every shelf is getting the same two coats of epoxy treatment.

Back at Greenwich Flying squadron we had a handicap win last Wednesday. The breeze was at the top end of our No 1 light genoa range and with a crewmember holding the clew out to windward we sailed through the fleet on the first downwind leg. From there on it was concede as little ground as possible on the windward leg to Goat Island and hang on for the race back around Cockatoo and home.

The wind was definately in the sweet spot for Passion X, we had a clean bottom and applied maximum vang pressure to windward so we could drop the boom down and retain height with the tight leech. Lots of rig adjustment throught the variable wind strength kept us moving but it will take a mighty effort to match the J boats to windward. Well done to Jackpot for a fastest time.

I have been quiet with posts and with facebook because the current state of play is that the thin layer of fibreglass cladding is taking a lot longer to apply and fair than I had anticipated. Also the photos of the partially faired glass are unflattering.

As of today the whole of the hull has been machine sanded and checked for fariness with a torture board pass. There are several spots where filler will have to be applied and these are mostly where the very thin layer of tissue on top of the 265 gsm double bias either missed or overlaped. When I say very thin I mean 22 grams per square metre or less than one tenth of the base layer.

I will spend the next two days spot filling and using the torture board to check for any more imperfections before applying the first coat of white epoxy primer. The first coat will be sanded back hard to identify any high or low spots that I miss with the torture board on the raw fibreglass.

On Passion X, after turning the hull, the primer around the gunwhale had to be sanded back to get a fair finish so I am paying particular attention to sanding the fibreglass around the gunwhale so that the primer will be fair.

Inside the hull I have been making little progress because the weather has generally been fine enough for sanding but I have cut out the settee backs and starter fitting cleats to the shelves.

There is a possibility that the epoxy priming of the hull will line up with the epoxy priming of the V berth locker fronts and the settee backs. Time will tell.

On the sailing front we hung on for a win in the Summer series due to our attendance record. Now we are back to the Spring and Autumn series where we are hanging on to the lead by the slimmest of margins. Last night did not help when we were slow out of Humbug. We overtook Ausreo at Cockatoo Island and Fireball just before Goat Island. On the run back to Cockatoo we briefly caught sight of Jackpot, U topia, Joli and Meridian and for a short while the breeze carried us closer to this quartet. Unfortunately we sailed into the hole that they escaped from and were run down in turn by Fireball.
Around Cockatoo we streatched our from Fireball and Ausreo and made good progress on the tight reach to Humbug. Ausreo had a better run home than most and managed to catch up on handicap but we did take out Jackpot and Fireball to just retain our lead from Meridian who is having a real charge at the lead.

After a winter of too much rain and long delays to boatbuilding it is strange to be welcoming the rain back. The sanding of the hull is taking a toll on my body and the rain forces me to stop the sanding and tackle some other tasks.

Since the last post there has been two sessions of rain. In the first session I finished filleting the frames to the skin forward of the mast step and installed the V berth bearers and wing panels. There are four panels to the V berth with the outer ones fixed to the hull and the middle ones hinged to access the sail storage under. The outer wings are fixed to the bunk bearers and the hull skin forming a formidable U section and all that remains is to paint the bare plywood and wait for the hull to be turned.

During the same wet spell I retreived the V berth locker shelves from storage and fitted them to the cleats on the bulkheads. I had taken the opportunity to trim the shelves to the skin position before skinning the hull so it was just a matter of some final trimming with a hand plane and they are all ready to go. So that I can get better access to fillet the shelves to the skin I will do these one at a time.

last Friday I cut out the front panels for the two lockers between the V Berth and the mast step bulkhead. These intersect the hull across a tangent stringer so there was a lot of trial fits and trims to get a snug fit against the hull. Fortunately one of the grandsons turned up late in the day and did the lifting and holding for me to finish the fit.

With the fine weather returning I recommenced sanding the epoxy prime coat.

Elaine volunteered to do a bit of torture boarding rather than go to the gym and Don, one of our crew, also made it a social morning on two days to keep me motivated.

This outer layer of epoxy primer is reinforced with a very light double bias to form a base for the epoxy paint. Of the six 1.3 metre wide panels applied four went very smoothly but still needed a lot of machine sanding for the final finish. The final two were applied on a hot day and it was difficult to keep ahead of the resin curing curve. I settled for mixing many small batches and finishing each section before mixing the next and while it needed a little more sanding than the first four panels it has sanded up well.

Due to the temperature of the day I left the laminating till after 5pm so it was a late finish to a hot day. Tuesday was equally hot but I had to sand the laminate before the epoxy cured rock hard and with a bit of perseverence managed to tidy up all the already applied epoxy and prepare the hull for the next four panels. That will get me past half way when we next have a cool dry spell.

The wet and windy weather of today was a relief. For the morning I set myself up in the sunroom with the plywood locker fronts on the glass table and set out the locker openings. Not wanting to make a mess of another room in the house I moved the panels to the carport to cut out the locker access holes. This was less civilised than the sun room but was nevertheless a pleasant work station.

That went well so I moved on to the settee backs which will have six locker access holes cut in each face. I used a cardboard template to establish the angled cuts on the two ends and first side fitted the second side exactly so I could cut a matching mirror image.

So that is where I am up to. If it is wet I will finish cutting out the holes in the setee back and if it is still wet I will move to the quarter berth locker fronts. This is my minimum internal fit out target before turning the hull.

If it turns fine and cool then I will get back to the thin laminate on the hull where there is at least two full weeks of work before the four coats of epoxy paint can start.

Christmas was a time for a relaxing break from boatbuilding and to letting my muscles recover. A bonus was to go out on the Harbour and watch the start of the Sydney to Hobart. We positioned Passion X at the Heads near to the turning mark and were well placed to watch the action as four 100 ft maxis tussled to be first out of the Heads.
After two days of relaxation and with some fine boatbuilding weather I attacked the fairing of the hull with a vengance and over the next two days managed to complete the fairing and epoxy coat the aft end of the hull. Now at least the stern was protected from the weather.

New Years Eve, New Years Day and the 2nd were fully occupied with assisting at the ILCA (Laser) Oceania regatta at the Georges River Sailing Club where we were inspecting all the yachts for compliance with the ILCA rules. It was still good boatbuilding weather on the third and with a few days of rest behind me again attacked the fairing with a passion. In one long day I completed the middle of the hull leaving only the front 20% to be completed. Now the forecast turned for the worse but tempting fate I finished the last 20% on the Wednesday before the rain set in. It was very fine timing as the cost of epoxy was just touch dry when the drizzle started.

Wednesday is our twilight race day so it was an early finish and a quick trip to the club. With festive seasons absences and with a miserable forecast we fully expected a diminished fleet and the crowd huddled in the doorway at the club seemed to want to call the whole thing off and go home. Rumours of lightning and BOM warnings were circulating but the warning zone did not extend to the coast so it was all clear for the sailing.

A most unusual night of sailing ensued. I selected longish courses as out regular post race BBQ was no scheduled and if we took a little longer to finish the race it was not going to upset any plans. And the breeze was rising and falling ahead of stronger wind forecast for the Thursday. For our small crew I selected the No 3 jib and was prepared for the consequences if the wind died.

The race was conducted in two halves, not by plan but by chance. At the start Joli, Meridian and Irikundji got a good break from Utopia and ourselves on Passion X while Fireball and Ausreo struggled to get the phasing right to get out of Humbug. All the way to Goat Island and back we we chased Utopia and Irukandji while Ausreo chased us. Any chance of catching Joli and Meridian seemed to have escapes as they were already minutes ahead but strange things happen. Back at Longnose Irukandji and Utopia were stopped dead in the wind shadow. Here Utopia managed a mini break while we snuck through to leeward of Irukandji and Ausreo went even wider and made up time.

At Cockatoo Island the breeze died to less than five knots and we were soon overtaken by Ausreo who was sporting a large overlapping genoa compared to our tiny No 3 jib. Once out of the wind shadow of Cockatoo Island we went high and made ground on Ausreo while in the distance we could see Joli and Meridian becalmed in the wind shadow off of Balmain. The sat there motionless for a long time which encouraged us to go even wider than usual. By a bit of luck the breeze freshened as we approached the point so the wind shadow blew away for a few moments and let us pass Ausreo to windward and just hold them out for the rest of the journey.

Joli and Meridian were first into the hole and first out so they made up some of their lost ground but then lost it again going around Goat Island the second time. On rounding Goat we were surprised to see the three leaders not far ahead. Again with a bit of luck we held out the small jib to windward and went very wide of Snails Bay so that we could give Long Nose a wide berth on the way home. Ausreo liked what we were doing and followed so we both made up ground.

Into Humbug we took the wide berth and headed for the Onion Point shore and made up a little more ground and at Onion Point flipped the jib out to windward again and headed for the line.

On fastest time this was one of our better performances and a handicap win is always appreciated. Much appreciated was that the rain held off apart from a little drizzle.

I am at a loss to understand how we got so far behind at the start and how we made up so much ground at the finish but it was a most pleasing race.

That was the last of the fine weather as Thursday and Friday conditions were not suitable for any construction work. I did a tiny bit of filleting and setting out partial bulkhead positions using the laser level but a very lille big indeed. The weather was so inclement that sailing at the ILCA Oceania Championships was abandoned on both days and we hope for better weater for them for the final two day.

The title applies to both the sailing and the boatbuilding. The sailing can be attributed in part to a very dirty hull which for various reasons remains unscrubbed. Hopefully that will be righted over the Christmas break and we will be back to form.

Despite the poor performance the absence from the fleet of several competitors means the results don’t look too bad provided you do not look at the elapsed times.

Last week the winds were the strongest of the season and with a No 3 jib and full main we survived with a crew of four and had a very quick trip twice around Goat island.

This week with a lighter breeze the dirty bottom was more of a handicap but it was nevertheless a pleasant trip around the islands.

On the boatbuilding front I am busy patching all the holes from the temporary fasteners, doing more torture boarding as my muscles will permit and filling in the wet days with work inside the hull with filleting the bulkheads to the hull.

The weather has been frustrating as the covers have to go on with the slightest rain and that upsets the rythm of the boatbuilding.

As of tonight the temporary fastener holes on the starboard side are fully patched with thickened epoxy and both sides of the hull have had a good workout with the torture board. The centre line join and the bow have been fibreglassed with three layer of 420 gsm double bias and the bow has been sanded ready for fairing filler.

The next job is to finish the hole filling on the port side and do a light sanding of the hull prior to more fairing filler. After that I will be happy to coat all the plywood with a sealing layer of epoxy resin.

A wild front just went through with wind gusts over 50 knot so it was a good time to pause and do a progress report.

At the time of the last report the lower rudder stock bearing had been laminated and was curing. The following day I trimmed off the rough edges of the upper flange and lower rim before the resin went rock hard. The following day I had planned to remove the mandrel thinking it would be a major exercise but to my surprise the mandrel literally fell out of the housing. I attribute this to the fact that the laminating was done on a hot afternoon with the mandrel expanded with the heat and in the cool of the morning the clearance created was enough for it to slip out without any assistance.

The next job was to get the rudder stock into position so that the upper and lower bearings could be aligned. That was easier said than done as the weight of the stock exceeds my lifting limit. With the aid of two chain blocks suspended from the awning I managed to get it into position and do the alignment late at night when the lines from the laser level were easily seen.

That meant a late finish as the gluing of the bearing housing into the strongback had to happen later that evening.

Once the glue had cured it was time to add the reinforcements to the housing and as that meant working the laminates upside down I proceeded with caution with first the stern gusset bonded into the transom gusset and glass wrapped around the bearing housing. Next day I glued in place the 12 mm plywood transverse gusssets and the forward one and once that glue was cured I could start the laminating. Again proceeding with caution I did that in three stages until all three 12 mm ply gussets had six layers of 420 gsm double bias glass around them.

On Friday we had an early Christmas get together with some of the family and my two eldest boys lifted the rudder stock out of the bearing housings and helped me get it to the garage for storage. That was a bonus task completed in short time.

In between laminating in gussets I have been progressing the hull fairing along the radius chine and have started glassing the centreline join. I cannot do long periods of torture boarding so I am fitting in less physically demanding interior tasks.

Today with the wind and rain I had a reprieve from the hard work but managed to fit some of ply doublers over the stringer notches. At this stage they are all cut and I am down to the last two frames for gluing.

For the record we did win the spring series on handicap from Utopia. Before the race John said it was time for us to win a seried but then then put on a master display and won the race. We held on by a single point but a win is a win.

I have been busy. Last weekend was the Laser state titles at Wangi Wangi which kept us occupied for two days and away from boatbuilding. A rest from boatbuilding was needed as the overuse injuries are starting to mount up and I am having to pace myself with the manual labour. Still a lot has happened and so this will be a catch up blog.

First the yacht racing where we scored a third and a first place in the last two Wednesday events. The first place was last week when we were given second on the night but the winner must have overlooked his crew list. No big deal as we all move up one point and the series stays in the same order. It was one of those nights where if you get out of Humbug early you establish a good lead and that is what we did. It is a rare race indeed when we beat the Sydney 38 Utopia by quite a few minutes. Congrats to Adrian for fastest time and commiserations to Steve who was second fastest on the night.

On the boat building scene I spent the Thursday and Friday prior to the Laser regatta trimming the excess plywood from the gunwales. This is an awkard job as the angle is uphill so by the end of two four hour sessions my arms were pretty tired but I am very pleased with the result.

My engine beds were delivered saving me a long trip and after a few trial fits and epoxy coating or the timber base the metal angles are firmly bolted in their final position.

One of the achievements of the past fortnight was to manufacture an epoxy glass stern tube which is twice the thickness of the off the shelf items. I had an ideal mandrel in the form of 32 mm OD fibreglass pultrusions with a highly polished surface. I did have to use the one tonne chain block to extract the mandrel but the result is very pleasing.

On Thursday I collected my drive train components and on Friday and promptly bedded in the P bracket and stern tube using the bearings dry fitted as alignment guides.

On Friday I cut out the holes for the rudder stock having previously reinforced the hull with 24 mm of plywood attached to the 12 mm skin and fixed between the strongback and the stringers. The cutting was accomplished with the required diameter hole saws in very quick time. A post cutting alignment check was conducted mainly to get the tiller stop on the upper housing exactly on the centre line.

The lower bearing housing has been fabricated and after a couple of days the mandrel will be pressed out of the moulding leaving me ready to fix the rudder stock position.

It was great to see the big Ausreo out on Wednesday night even if they did disappoint us by powering past on the final work to the finish. Weather wise it was the best of the season and that no doubt brought out the big Beneteau and hopefully they will keep up the appearances.
We were down on crew numbers for the night and that meant we were not the quickest tackers in the fleet so our handicap results suffered. Another minute and we would have been mid fleet so it was not a disaster and everyone gets a turn with the handicap system.

On fastest times we were a long way behind Jackpot who took off out of Humbug and was never troubled. Fully powered up she is a fast ship and quite a contrast to the reefed mainsail result from last week.

Joli had another good race and seemed to like the conditions but even given she sailed well the gap back to Passion X was excessive. From the results it was clear that the earlier starting fleets had relatively better times around the course than the later ones and the slower of the later ones seemed to have been left out on the course.

We did not do well on the run back from Goat Island and could see the slower yachts from behind rapidly closing the gap with freshing breeze and the bigger Blue fleet yachts did blanket us for much of the run. It was not until we turned the corner at Cockatoo for the work home that we got clear air and streatched out from the Blue Fleet.

It was at this stage that Ausreo went through our lee like we were standing still and perhaps we were. Perhaps we were staying too close to Cockatoo to avoid the Blue fleet running over the top and while we did that Ausreo left us in their wake.

On the boat building front I moved from the bow to the stern and added the final layer of 12 mm ply to the rear edge of the boarding platform. This forms a formidable box section comprising two layers of 12 mm ply on the two faces and a layer on the top and bottom edge all stiffened with webs and stringers. While the bow is massive with four layers of 32 mm meranti on top of 36 mm of ply the stern is equally strong.

These last two jobs left me with a seriously sore shoulder and an inclination for lighter duties which included fitting the external keel shoe, doing the external glass on one of the ply joins, cutting the hole for the stern tube and locating the P bracket. These were all tasks requiring more care and attention to detail than the robust planing of the bow and are jobs that are due to be done.

Today I attempted to manufacture the stern tube out of epoxy glass. While I say attempted I mean it is made but it is stuck with less than half off the mandrel. Tomorrow I will jury rig the 2 tonne chain block to see if they can be parted of if I have to start again when fresh supplies of fibreglass arrive.

Wednesday was a challenge both for the officials and the contestants. The breeze had been above the forecast all day but was due to subside around start time. As it had backed off a little the race started on longish courses as befits a windy night and we all finished in the light.
With our tiny crew of four with two on light duties it was a challenge but we managed well due to the heroic efforts of Kevin who was treating it as a Laser race.
Elaine and Frank did great jobs grinding in the No 3 jib despite the windy conditions. I did promise Frank that I would but larger winches on the next boat and we will definately go up a size to 50’s.
For the night we swapped the mainsheet to the port side so that the No1 reef line could be kept on the starboard winch and that worked well in keeping the foot flat.
Most of the fleet sailed with a reef although Utopia did not and Joli took her reef out in the pre start. This I had not noticed but once in Humbug Joli took off. This was a good thing and a bad thing as leading the fleet Joli sailed the White board course and left the rest of us to sail all the way to Spectacle Island.
It was a quick trip to Spectacle, Snapper and back to Goat where we passed the Blue Fleet which means we did the extra miles in 5 minutes.

Out in front of the Blue Fleet was Hula pretending to be a Farr 40 or something. To be fair we did pass her around Goat but once on the work home she took off showing her Black Fleet capabilities. I do like to tease DJ about that.
We went wide around Goat Island and were still in the hunt with Jackpot and Meridian at the red bouy but on the way home we were not as nimble with the tacking on the shifts.
Irukandji was more nimble and passed us up the work to Cockatoo but we almost caught her once on the free leg back to Humbug.

Unlike last weeks purgatory, Humbug was more foregiving and apart from letting the big Hanse 400 run over us no damage was done and there was no last minute recovery for Sweet Chariot.

At the finish we managed a second on handicap which was very pleasing for such a small crew.

Back at the building site progress has been very measured as I have been battling a persistent ear infection and the antibiotics are knocking me about. While working at a more measured pace I have made a lot of progress but no torture boarding. Notable jobs have been finishing the king plank doubers inside the hull and making the keel shoe out of spotted gum to go between the plywood skin and the steel fin. I have yet to shape the side of the keel shoe that goes against the hull as the shape forms a curve in profile as it intersects the V of the bottom. It is ready to be shaped in profile and there are new sharp blades in the Makita. They will be needed as the timber is very hard indeed.

Today I shaped the last of four layers of 32 mm meranti that form the bow. From by stockpile I selected some medium density for the first two layers up agains the 36 mm of plywood at station 0 and some very dense merati for the front two layers which will take the bolts for the forestay fitting. The hard timber was hard going and as I glued and faired each of the four layers individually it was a four day job.

The glue in the last layer cured overnight so today I changed the blades in the Makita and spent four hours planing by machine and by hand and sanding by machine and by hand until I could do no more.

As an escape from the hard work of hand planing I have been working on the companionway steps. This all started because as I was selecting timber for the bow I spotted a length that was pretty tough but straight grained and thought that would make a good set of steps. And so it is that they are made in plenty of time for epoxy coating and varnishing before they are put into use when the hull is turned.