Remarkable the rain stayed away for the Wednesday twilight race and for the post race post mortems and barbecue. As we came dead last I performed an autopsy on Passion and can report that the death in the race was due not only to getting becalmed on the corner of Goat Island but also due to a healthy weed garden growing under the wing keel. I have never seen so much weed and barnacles on Passion but I do admit that it is 18 months since the last antifouling.
Thursday was a brilliant morning to be woken up by the waves from the 6am ferry. After a breakfast of rice bubbles and a cup of earl grey it was time to take Passion to Noakes for the scheduled post mortem examination. The lift was waiting early so I motored straight into the slings and was off in a few moment ready for the inspection.
I predict Passion will be back with a vengeance for the Autumn series.
Back home the skies were clear so I removed the tarps from Next Passion and started the ply cladding. The 2.4 by 1.2 metre sheets of ply are not the easiest to handle so Elaine assisted with the transfer from the garage to the building site and before long I had a sheet cut to size, the edge routered for the join to the curved section and all the fastening holes pre drilled. By marking all the stringer locations on the back side of the ply sheet I get a guide for applying the glue and a guide for drilling the fasteners. There are about 40 fasteners per sheet so a methodical approach is well worth the effort.
The final fairing of the stringers took longer than expected but on the other hand the tolerances are very fine and the glue joins quite thin.
It is probably just as well that I ran out of screws as fitting the second sheet would have added a couple of hours to what had already been a busy day.
Today I procured enough fasteners for fixing another five sheets, fitted the second sheet to the bow opposite the first and fixed a second sheet to the starboard side. The second sheet for the port side was cut using the starboard one as a template and it is ready to go when I am.
The second sheet ties in with the chainplate support and the two shelves on either side so there is quite a bit of fairing to be done to ensure nothing distorts the ply sheets. There will be less as I move to the stern and there might be a chance to improve on the two sheet a day production schedule. There are 20 sheets to go before I move to the moulded ply radius chine section.
The photo you are waiting for is here
The first two sheets of plywood installed on the starboard side.
The join in the ply has to line up with the centre line of the stringers so that has to be marked on the face of the ply doublers.