Spent a few more hours with the longboard and decided the hull was fair enough to start fiberglassing. Did more before that since dad had to work today though.
Last night I added the additional reinforcements specified by Ian in the update for the rudder web. Also finished the bobstay eye.
This is the part where I’m going to plug Ian as a designer – he always answers questions promptly (even though they might be trivial) and is quick to send out updates. During a race last week, one of the first F-22R’s launched had the upper gudgeon crack and ultimately fail. He addressed this problem by sending the builders an email and a few days ago we received an updated design for the rudder web. Things like this make me so glad I chose one of his designs.
Anyway – back to the building….
Bogged together enough foam for the rudder blank (a little longer than the off-cuts we have). One of the options for making the foil is to have the trailing edge bog so it can be sanded down and not worry about de-laminating. I decided to make the center sheet of foam 1″ shorter than the outside pieces and will fill with bog before we start to shape the foil. I think this will make it easier in the long run.
Also added another layer of foam to the exposed areas at the stern. They are already much stiffer and I’m sure they won’t even move when the outside has fiberglass.
After dad got home from work, we rolled out and cut one width of exterior fiberglass and started laminating with peel-ply. Glad we didn’t do both sides of the deck at once because I don’t know where I would have sat up there to get the other side. Everything seemed to go well though, and hopefully we can get the port side laminated tomorrow.