It's been just about a month and a half since I cut the first wood for the boat. I spent the better part of 9 months designing in Rhino 3D and I am up to saved version 103. I have 12 ama iterations and about 6 of the main hull. All that and I'm still making major changes to the boat. Such is boat building.
A few days ago I removed the temporary frame that held the sheer line in place while I was installing stations. I've been anxious for that because it meant I could weight the hull. Drum roll.....62lbs as it sits. That is minus a couple of bulkheads, stringers, cabin sole, seats, cockpits, hatches and of course epoxy coating. It's heavier than I had hoped but not a death sentence. She is still on track to be significantly lighter than any production multihull of this size and power.
Below are the visible epoxy marks of a bulkhead that didn't make the cut. It's not that I put it in the wrong place, its just that I moved it after it had already been installed. Oops.
I'm closing in on the last few bulkheads. Once they are all in, I will be able to install the stringers for good, epoxy coat the inside and start closing it up. There isn't really that much in this hull.
One down side so far has been the artform that is tortured ply in a 1 off scenario, there was no way I could predict the exact section shapes and no one has built this hull before. Sometimes you have to let the wood do what it wants to do. All of the bulkheads in the main hull have been painstakingly patterned and hand fit. This just won't do for the amas. I need to speed up construction so I'm working on a more precise way to predict the ply shape so that I can CNC cut the bulkheads and have two identical amas. This will hopefully speed up construction. Stay tuned. Amas are on the horizon.
