On to the main hull

After stocking away the floats ( I left them with the fairing strips to do the fairing later together with the main hull) I set up the frames for the main hull. Notice that I cross braced every other pair of frames to make sure they stay vertical as battens are screwed into place. In a first attempt without the braces I had a hard time keeping the frames upright. I was a bit afraid the braces could get in the way later on but it turned out they didn't pose any problem at all.

Here I laying down the first foam planks. I used 360 mm ( 14") wide planks and despite many other builders reporting difficulties working with larger widths I didn't experience any problems here.

Notice that I move the plank a bit to the side in order to use the clamps while I heat form the plank. The difference in the shape is minimal and makes planking a lot easier. I also use V slots on the planks. It worked well with the floats so I decided to repeat the process here. Slots are cut at 45º and they take up a considerable amount of bog . On the next planks I may reduce the angle a bit to reduce bog volume.

Well. Planking done! Thinking about it, it's much faster than one could expect.

Voilá!

Looks good but not as fair as the floats. I did have some misalignments in the curved section near the joining line. On next half I'll put some extra battens on that area.

Now that the hull is ready for lamination I'll be making the bulkheads and other components as I wait for the right temperatures to laminate.

I'm still getting daytime temperatures around 20ºC but by night temperatures can drop close to 10ºC so I guess I'll have to use a plastic tunnel and some heat source to avoid any possible setbacks due to improper curing.