Autor: Joe Goetz

Before continuing with the lamination of the deck, I began work on the observation pod (the little house on the deck).

Laminating, as I do it, in detail:
1. Coat the wood with a thin layer of epoxy and sand it down well. This saturates the wood and prevents it from absorbing the resin from the laminate during lamination.

2. Laminate all edges and panel transitions with glass strips. I used wider strips than required so that I could sand down the edges a little.

3. Dry fit the glass fabric. I secured the piece at the rear edge with a little tape so that I could later put it back in the right place.

4. Cover all areas that should not be covered with epoxy.

5. Roll the fibreglass fabric back. Now we are ready for the resin.

6. Apply a thick layer of epoxy and roll the fibreglass fabric on top of it. With a roller press it into the epoxy. My fibreglass fabric is quite thick, so it needs more resin. But before I apply the second layer of resin, I take a short break until the first layer is sticky. This fixes the glass in place and prevents it from shifting when the second layer is applied.

7. Apply the second coat of epoxy and cover everything with peel ply. Peel ply should be applied without wrinkles. This is much easier to do with several small pieces than with one large piece.

After more than two weeks of preparation, I was finally able to glue the rest of the deck in place. The preparation mainly consisted of painting the interior. This is easier and less unpleasant in an open space. I also painted the underside of the deck panels, which is much easier to do on a table than from underneath after installation.

A friend helped me with the gluing. Before gluing, we screwed handles onto the panels so that we could lift and position them without smearing epoxy everywhere.

I am very happy with the result; everything went according to plan.

A short break after work to admire the result…

As in the front part of the boat, the wooden areas here will also be painted blue.

As with the underside of the hull, I first had to laminate fibreglass strips over all the edges. This went much better than on the underside.

I also used biax fabric instead of woven fibreglass for the deck. I found a 610 gram fabric that allowed me to achieve the required thickness in one go.

As always, I covered everything with a layer of peel-ply at the end.

All areas under the cockpit have now been painted.
So it was time to finalise the design of the cockpit floor and benches.

I sourced extra-strong aluminium hatches for the access openings (many thanks to Manuel Bürgi from Marina Sport in Horw). These hatches are completely watertight and sturdy. This is important because I have completely separated the area in the middle, under the cockpit floor, from the other areas and therefore need a hatch there.
I will install small, waterproof boxes in the backrests for storing small items and food.

Now that the first piece of the deck is glued on, I made the cut-outs for the deck hatch and the portlights (the small windows on the side).

The hatch and portlights have to be mounted on a flat surface. Because the deck is curved, I had to glue on frames to compensate for the curvature. This reveals an interesting property of plywood: you would expect plywood to bend in only one direction, similar to a sheet of paper. But the deck is actually curved in two directions.

Finally, I smoothed out the transition from the deck to the frame. This was not for aesthetic reasons, but because it makes it easier to laminate the entire deck with fibreglass.

Finally glued the first piece of the deck in place!
The first piece, the small triangle at the front, was quite easy.
The next piece was much more difficult. How do you get such a large piece into exactly the right place on the first attempt without smearing all the resin?
I screwed two hooks into the ceiling and lifted the piece into place using strings.

Then I started gluing: first, I coated all the gluing points with resin. Then I applied the thickened epoxy to the frames and stringers.

After that, I slowly lowered the panel using the strings. I fixed the position with two screws on the front edge before shaping the panel with weights.

Now all I had to do was screw everything together securely.

This is what it looks like inside the front compartment now. The unpainted section will be cut out later to install the hatch.

It was a great weekend!
Three other boat builders came to visit me so that we could cast the lead bulbs for our boats together.
First up was Fabian (#208), who built two beautiful moulds.

We were able to borrow the casting equipment from Thomas (#66), who has already finished his lead bomb. Many thanks to him, it worked perfectly!

We were fortunate in obtaining the lead: the company on whose premises my workshop is located had manufactured a batch of lead casings for X-ray machines and saved the milling chips for us.

It took us almost an hour to melt the lead and bring it to the right temperature.
We cast two bulbs one after the other and then waited four hours until they were cold enough to remove them from the mould.

At first, we were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to get the bulbs out of the mould. But the lead shrank as it cooled, and soon we could see a gap between the mould and the lead.

The result of the first two runs.

And these are the four of us boat builders: Oliver (#273), Fabian (#208), me (#165) and Dominique (#220).

I continued working on the front part of the boat. Since I accepted that I will never be a good painter, I am much more relaxed when painting.

Everything that is not white now will be painted blue later, after the deck has been glued on.

I have already prepared the front part of the deck for gluing. Except for the gluing areas, the underside of the deck has already been painted white.

I continued working on the deck beams. There is also another white piece in the forecastle (=finished).

The two square pieces are the frames for the two deck hatches.

I painted the bunks. Painted means finished!
I particularly like the contrast between the dark blue holes and the white side panels.

I am slowly learning how to proceed to achieve an acceptable result. As with many things, the magic word is patience.

Never try to do too much at once.

And it’s better to mix small amounts of paint several times than to mix a large amount once. This takes a lot of time (I use a two-component PU paint that has to rest for 15 minutes after mixing), but the paint always has the right consistency.

Apply thin layers. I applied four layers. After the first layer, it looks terrible, as if it will never work. After the second layer, it looks a little better and you start to hope that it will work after all. Only after the third layer does it look reasonably even.