Just a quick post to show how the hull went together, and note a couple of tricks I picked up in the process. On the whole, the parts from the CNC tools fitted together really well. I thought at one stage there was some sort of error with the front wingbar socket location, but it turned out to be human error. I wasn't careful enough in aligning the two sections of the mould when I joined them. Lesson: don't leve any small detail at all up to the human! The sides and foredeck were designed to just glue to the hull, (they only fitted in one spot so it was impossible to get that wrong) but the deck needed to be glued in and then the joints reinforced with carbon tapes.
After Half-meanie's disastrous tapes, I decided to try spray gluing the dry carbon to the joints and wetting out with resin afterward. I used a product called Infuzene, which is designed for temporarily holding the laminate together in an infusion process. It worked pretty well, but ended up coming un-stuck in some places where the resin wet it out. Some people suggested just 3M spray glue, which I might try at some point. The final bond of the tape to the hull seemed ok in the end - Infuzene is designed to be a bit lumpy so as not to coat the entire surface of the cloth - time will tell if i've completely stuffed it up.
I took the boat outside for a tidy up, and wet'n'dried the whole thing ready for clear coat. The surface isn't going to be perfect - the odd pin hole, dent, seam etc. but I just couldn't be bothered fairing it at this point! it looks fine generally by my standards. The foils will be a different story of course.
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| Dad helping out after we joined the second fairing to the hull |
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| Dry tapes stuck down with spray glue |
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| Infuzene spray - the pink blotchy stuff |
