When we finish in front of Allegro and Joli and alongside Foreigh Affairs we expect better than ninth place so I was disappointed when the results came out. We had our best sails for the conditions but from the start Amante and Crosshaven took off and were never headed. Agrovation with a smaller than expected headsail managed third over the line due to their good upwind speed but their handicap put them one behind Passion X.
I mention we finished near Foreign Affairs so their last place on handicap was no suprise but what was suprising is that they did not get away.
Perhaps the Sydney 36CRs have a special trick up their sleeves in such conditions and full marks to Crosshaven for a good win. Also full marks to Monkey Magic for second place but almost three minutes behind Crosshaven. If Crosshaven was an athlete she would be asked to pee into a bottle.
That’s enough about the race now what has been going on at the boatyard?
To be fair a lot of other activities have been going on. We have over the last few week demolished 15 metres of fence and sent that to the tip in a skip bin. Next we demolished a large garden shed and sent that to the tip is a similarly large skip bin. Then there was repairs to a trellis that had been demolished by the tree fellers when they removed the large gum from the back yard. All has not yet returned to normal as the contents of the garden shed that we wish to keep are spread around the property awaiting a new one.
Against this backdrop I have been plodding along on the radius chine planking.
There was a brief interruption to get the four coats of epoxy paint into the water tanks before the planking obstructed the access and the fairing of the radius chine doublers has had to be kept going in advance.
The radius chine is fixed to a 100 mm wide 12 mm ply strip which is attached to a 32 by 22 stringer. The flat panels attach to 50 mm of the strip and the radius section attaches to the other 50 mm. Before attaching the radius section the 50 mm strip has to be planed to the curve and in the planing process the longitudinal shape has to be maintained. At the rear the curve is so large that the fairing is quite simple but as the work approches the bow the curve is much sharper and the amount of ply to be planed off is more.
At the bow for the first 5 metres I had not routered the step in the 12 mm ply as it was going to be out in the weather for a while and I wanted to leave the 6 mm step until I was ready to do the curve. That time arrive today.
I had been a bit anxious about the routering on the upturned hull but by carefully fastening a long timber batten to the hull as a guide the process went rather well.
The rest of the day was spent fairing the 50 mm of ply to the radius shape and apart from a final fiddle just before gluing it is finished.
Now I have few excuses left for plodding progress. There is nothing stopping me completing the front half of the first 6 mm ply layer and moving on to the second layer. So it is 40 done and 120 to go.