We had just enough fine weather and just enough fibreglass cloth to complete most of the glassing of the deck of our Didi 40 Cr before the rain really set in. Thursday and Friday have been awful boat building days but with Kevin’s help we fitted the two chainplates on the side decks and the two plates for the running backstays. Late on Thursday I spent two hours hand sanding the roof beams in the cabin. Today was even more inclement and a meeting of the Sydney Harbour Users Group was a welcome break from the dust. This afternoon I donned sanding gear and spent half a day machine and hand sanding the roof in the V berth.
While I dislike the wet and cold there is much to do inside and once kitted up for the sanding it was quite comfortable lying in the V berth and looking up at the ceiling. A 100 mm foam mattress would have made it so much more comfortable.
Not wanting to leave too many tasks to the last minute I have lashed out and put a deposit on a new fat head mainsail. I had thought to get on the water with a modified pin head main off Passion and see how it went but as time has marched on all the trialing time has gone and we will need the new main at launch. In building the new yacht I made was determined not to go too high tech or add more expensive equipment than you would find on the average stock production yacht. What we have on Passion is the benchmark for what we will have on Passion X. That means the mainsail will be a radial cut from woven cloth. I am very keen on carbon for the genoas as the low stretch keeps the flow in the right position. With the mainsail supported on the mast I am less concerned for stretch and more concerned for reliability. I have gone for the Hydra Net Radial cloth as the lightest woven that will be suitable for the very low displacement of the Didi 40 Cr. I hope it is the right decision.
I have also put down a small deposit on the rig so that they can proceed with production drawings ahead of the full deposit that needs to be paid eight weeks before launch.
Inside we can measure up all the cushions and get these under way.
As a reminder of what the rig should look like I have included a sketch.
The very slightly larger rig on our Wide Stern Deep Keel version of the Didi 40 Cr