Port side windows + mastpost

Putting on ridges of fairing compound with a candy bag on the port side. This time I put on more ridges than I used to do, about every 5 cm, and this worked better for me.After the ridges have been sanded flush they are used as guides to put two layers of fairing compound on.

Then it's time to sand with the long board (P40). Notice the bad spot above the front window in the picture below? On this spot there was some not cured fairing compound - apparantly not properly mixed by me. Stupid and some extra work....I'll make sure this won't happen again.

I used a different manner than on the starboard side to mark the cutouts. This time I used the templates to mark the outline of the windows, and then used a flexible batten (and some nails) to mark the cutout (2,5 cm overlap window) in stead of just sliding the templates 2,5 cm up/down. I believe this way the cutout is slightly more 'fair'. Not that anyone will ever notice once the windows are glued on.....

The hardwood mastpost is glued in place, and has to be trimmed and glassed to the cabin roof. I'm thinking about putting a lifting eye in the deck just aft of the mast foot (and two lifting eyes just aft of the aft beam mounts), so I'll probably strengthen this area a bit with UD running up on the aft side of the mast post to the deck + some biax on top of that.

With all the basis components and cutouts done, I'll put the hull upside down and start faring the ceiling and sides of the interior and the outside of the hull.

Doing some leftover tasks

I still had to do the exterior laminate for one beam mount. The other three I laminated while the hull was standing upright on its supports. Stupid: it's much easier to work on the mounts whith the hull laying on its side, like I did with this last mount. You can easily roll the hull on your own.
I have learned it's easiest to laminate the hull-upper folding strut slot corner later on with a light cloth instead of trying to do that while doing the 'main' laminate.

I'm also working on the mast post. It is made of a piece of hardwood. In the picture I'm using soms scrap wood to measure the angle I need to cut the mast post.

Karel Michielsen urged me to strengthen the supports for the anchor well hatch with a filet and a piece of glass, which I thought was a good idea indeed. Here's how I did it.
At the moment I'm also using a lot of time to search for companies to deliver the hardware, masts, sails, etc. I'm having a hard time finding a store to buy the metals and bolts. I bought the 1" stainless steel ball at the ebay-shop of toolsupply (thanks to Grant's blog) but that's about it till now. In the US there are some very nice online stores for small quantities metal, like http://www.industrialmetalsales.com/ and http://www.onlinemetals.com/ in Seattle but the shipping costs of those companies to Europe is very high. Any tips to get metals in Europe (6061 T6 Alu and 316 Stainless) are appreciated!

hatches and cockpit floor

This weekend Karel Michielsen http://home.ozonline.com.au/f41_sail33/ paid me a visit (he was in Holland meeting family). It was really nice to talk to such an experienced builder. I'll try to pass on some of the tips he gave me in this blog. One of those tips was to put a sanding disk (grit 40 or 80)on the angled grinder and use that to touch up fiberglass seams, spills and generally do all other kinds of sanding.
Maybe this is no news for some, but I had never thought of using the grinder for this kind of work. In Holland the angled grinder is considered by most people to be just a tool for cutting & grinding metal and not a sanding tool. Anyway, I did some tests with the grinder and with some practice it indeed is a perfect tool for cleaning up fiberglass, cutting out bubbles and smoothing tape edges.

Anchor locker hatch will lie on some supports cut out of some leftover sandwich panel.
This is how it will look. I'll not bolt through the hinges. Instead I'll drill oversised holes in the hatch and deck, dig out a bit of foam and then fill with HD putty. Then I'll tap a thread to bolt the hinges with short bolts.
I made a small foam coaming for the forward hatch. Has to be touched up a bit and then I'll put some glass on.
Cockpit floor still has to be doubled. Good opportunity to get rid of the scrap foam pieces. Some of those pieces got a little sunburnt during the last two years. The divinycell is apparently not very UV resistant....