I came home yesterday to work on the boat for a bit before heading back to finish up exams. Dad had already installed the protective rope on the leading edge of the centerboard which looks very nice. He came up with a new method of gouging out a shallow groove in the leading edge for the rope to sit in that turned out great. While he worked on the tabernacle bulkhead, I started finishing the centerboard trunk.
We got the doublers glued onto the trunk sides and the 3/4" holes drilled in the doublers, trunk and board. Then we glued on the doublers and filled the holes with a thickened epoxy syrup that will act as a bushing for the stainless steel centerboard pin that will hold the board in the trunk. Before all that, we had to do what we had put off for a while now....Cut a giant hole in the bottom of the boat for the centerboard trunk. We chose to deviate from the plans with out trunk instillation because I thought it would be easier to get a perfect fit and I really like the result. The plans call for the trunk sides to sit ontop of the hull while we chose to have the trunk sides pierce the hull. All it means is that the joint edge shows up on the bottom of the hull rather than the inside of the trunk. It won't matter in the long run as everything gets fiberglass tape and epoxy. The trunk is fiberglassed to the boat with 3 layers of tape. The stock method however does mean that you don't have to make quite as big of a hole. Our centerboard fits perfectly into its slot with just over 1/32" of clearance on all sides.
Dad got the tabernacle top beam and lower front beam glued on and after we set aside the epoxied parts we cut out the cockpit seat tops. Now she really looks like a boat! After we get the tabernacle bulkhead glassed in and the trunk together and installed we will flip her over and finish the bottom. Time to order that paint for real. The aluminum for the masts should be coming in this weekend too. Grahams crew and fellow ECer graciously offered to drive the sections and track back with him from the coast to Durham so that we could just pick them up. Thanks Randy!
