Friday, May 05, 2006

Fitting the bow tank in PoppyCock

Its in! I have fitted the bowtank into PoppyCock! All I need to do now is the Fibreglass taping around the edges to make sure it is properly sealed. I took some pictures of the process.

Fitting the framework. I cut shaped and glued them in place using Bocatan, a great glue that gives time to move stuff about and then takes 2 days to harden and then sets like concrete.
Next I painted the supports on the inner surfaces.

Making the templates for cutting the plywood.
I had to do one for each side because of the differences. The Hull is not symetrical as you might expect.
Here is one half of the bow tank panel with an inspection hatch hole.
The panel has to be in two parts because it won't go in in one piece unless you take the deck off.

Fitted but not glued in yet.
Next I painted the inner surfaces to seal them.



And here she is with the bow tank panels glued in place.

Now I am sanding down all the internal woodwork and fixing any lose parts. I have to strengthen the seat supports and and the transom knee as well as seal the transom.
Some of the hull stiffners need regluing as well.

So she may be ready by June at this rate! The trouble is I keep on finding more that needs doing.

I have been trying to dry her out a bit so that she might shed some wieght but in the process the wood has cracked in a few places, not too bad but they need some repair work too.

I hope that I can get her finished soon though.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

She's looking good father!! Soon I shall have a boat to sail!! woo and yay!

Tillerman said...

Why isn't the hull symmetrical?

Litoralis said...

Looks good! Makes me glad to have only sailed fiberglass boats since my wooden Opti that I was too young to have anything to do with working on.

Tim Coleman said...

Hi Tillerman,
I think that it is because she was a home built boat. The differences are not easily noticed until you measure her.
However, I think it does explain why she points so much higher on Port and not so well on Starboard.
It would have been handy if it was the other way around!