Update

I decided to make the deck right on top of the floats using them as a support surface for tracing, joining and lamination. Actually I made each deck on the opposite float ( upside down) since they are simetrical. I left the chainplate HD insert for last in order to make moving around easier.
It worked very well and could be a good solution for other builders.

Here I decided to make round holes for the colloidal silica HD inserts. It's much easier and cleaner.

Double layer laminations applied on specified areas and peel plied.

View of the bow. I think it looks pretty good.

Shaping the bow can be a bit challenging at first but it turns out to be pretty easy once you get the hang of it. A power planer comes in very handy! Just down start plowing too much! At the end elbow grease will bring down to the right shape.

View of the two bows.

Note the rebate that was made to compensate for the thickness of the extra layers. I decided to set them parallel to the bow line so I could use a straight piece of fabric and make lamination easier. It worked out very well.

Exterior lamination.

This close-up shows the foam before lamination. Here I applied a coat of resin and glass ballons to fill in the pores and create a substrate to improve epoxy bonding and avoid those typical white patches that frequently show up in the laminate. These patches can be extensive and ruin the laminate.

I used a roller to spread the coat around. I found it very difficult to spread a uniform coat along the float. This wasn't a problem since the idea is to create a grid like distribution to serve as anckoring points just in case conditions arise for the development of "no-bond" patches.

The float's surface was also very carefully dust vaccumed. It took a good 45 minutes ( 2-3 passes) using a heavy dutty vaccum cleaner .

As you can see the laminate came out with a very high quality for hand lay-up (I'm using two 280gr/m2 fabrics for A laminate). No bubbles, no white patches at all and a very thin laminate.

What you see below the glass is the pattern of the pre-coat distribution and some foam joints.

After applying the resin-putty coat the surface must be thouroughly sanded which takes a lot of time but it's well worth the extra work.

Here is a wider view of the laminate.

It came out perfect!

I couldn't find a single flaw in the lamination except for some minor spots with some extra resin.

I was a bit aprehensive about those damned white patches that kept on showing up on previous laminations.

This time I decided to put some extra work on surface preparation and it really paid off!

TIP

Probably most of you builders have figured out some way to cut straight strips of BD fabric and avoid all those edge threads from coming apart and messing up the whoçe work.

I found this interesting and very simple way to cut straight strips from BD rolls.

First I measure the width on one of the sides, lift a couple of threads using a nail and just puçç them right out of the fabric. The result is a perfect guiding line.

Bulckhead Beam flanges

Making the beam mounting flanges on the beam bulkheads can be pretty awkward and time consuming . Having to apply 12 layers! of fabric ( of a total of 96!) on each bulckhead half in a cramped space is far from being a stroll in the park. Yet it's coming out much easier and more fluid than I anticipated. Started with the forward beam bulkheads to build up some courage to tackle the aft beam bulkheads latter on.

Setting up the 70º mold plate was a bit challenging in the begining until I decided to just putty bond a piece of plywood rapped in packaging tape. I expect it to come out although it won't be a problem if they just hang in there as part of the structure.

Back to work!

The past month has been pretty intense with plenty of things to do other than boat building. With several regatas and a visit to Holland to check on Menno's boat I spent many hours at sea.

Our Minitransat is out for maintenance after a pretty demanding sailing season with winds on the 20's most of the time and over 35 kts on one occasion. After several upwinds against choppy seas and some violent downwinds the boat just couldn't take any more beating ( neither could we!). The final account revealed engine failure, 3 busted mast sliders, 4 broken or lost battens and a busted running stays mast tensioner along with some ripps and tears on both the genoa and mainsail.

Now it's time to get back to some serious boat building!

Float half 3 of 4

Past week has been quite productive despite some rainy days along the way. The first two float halfs are ready and the third float half is on the way. Working productivity is increasing with time as expected.
Floats should be done by the end of next week which is not bad for a an effective working time of about 160 hours.
There should be some delay due to unusual weather pattern for this time of the year. By now we should have continuous clear skyes and day temperatures in the upper 30's but actually it looks more like late winter weather with plenty of rain and temperatures around 18ºC.
While this may delay lamination jobs, there are plenty of other things to do such as preparing some smaller components in advance.

Race time!

The building process will pause for a few days along the coming weeks because I have to get our boat ready for the next reggata. The start line is in Baiona (Spain) so we must sail the boat up north next weekend.

On July 10th we are participating in a reggata form Baiona( Spain) to Aveiro (Portugal) in a distance of about 100 miles. The reggata takes off at 3 pm and part of it will take place overnight with the first boats arriving next morning. Last year we finished 2nd out of about 40 boats with wind on the bow running mostly over 25knts.

Let's see how things run this year.

Here is a picture of our Coco mini650. This is a very competitive boat and it's just too bad we won't be able to keep both the Coco and the new F22.

Half no.1 almost ready!

First float half is nearly finished. After bonding the chainplate the float half is ready to come out and free the mold for the second half.