Tuesday, 26 September 2023

 Back to the build

The epoxy and fairing fillers have arrived and the transom has finally had its fairing layer added.


 And the edges of the transom have had their edges added, these were originally radiused in the wood stage, so that the glass fabric could curve around the corner correctly at the glassing stage, now the sharp trailing edge has been added so that the water sheds easily on the wake, they still need to sanded to a fine sharp edge.



The time waiting for the epoxy was not wasted, the interior fillets had a light sand  - it helps that care was taken to create the fillets so not much sanding was needed and some epoxy finger marks were sanded off some of the interior ply panels as well.



Sunday, 17 September 2023

 Balticus RTW5 a Setka round the world  -
and epoxy arrives this week


Arkadiusz Pawelek is busy sailing his slightly modified Setka to Plymouth UK for the start of his Balticus RTW5 - Solo, Non-Stop -  Round The World adventure. 








He departed Poland, Trzebieza  August 21 2023-  sailed through the Baltic, past Copenhagen, between Denmark and Sweden into Kattegat, , around Skagerrak, into the North sea, past the Netherlands and into the English channel to Plymouth UK, and after a short break he will set off on the Balticus  RTW5 adventure. 


Arkadiusz has previously completed the Setka Atlantic challenge, and has done some other amazing adventurous things and has recently been helping with delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine. If you would like to follow him

https://www.facebook.com/ArekPawelek1968/

and can check his tracking 



AND BIG NEWS!
my order of epoxy and microballoons should be here this week -
THE BUILD CAN CONTINUE...

Thursday, 7 September 2023

 August  - September 7th update

Sanding of the fairing compound is almost (bar a transom) complete,


unfortunately I have run out of microballoons and my epoxy is almost finished, and I tried to order more the day the supplier was due to go on summer vacation - forgetting that some businesses shut for summer vacation - final story is my epoxy order could only be fulfilled at the beginning of September  - so I have to wait while it gets shipped, by ship to me - there is a half a transom and the edges of chines that need fairing balloons




 - Meanwhile -  I am in the process of preparing the workshop for flipping the hull, and in the meantime, working out dimensions for the interior and also the interior layout, bulkhead cutouts, how the hatches will be built and how the companionway will be completed. I have also welded up some blocks to rotate the hull



 - the workshop beams are in progress of strengthening to take the weight of the boat, the rudder has had a layer of glass cloth added 



The garden has been tamed - Family and friends are visiting and the last of summer is being enjoyed,   my self imposed build time had not been met, but that is OK, the build is enjoyable and once the materials arrive the the build pace will continue.

 NMEA connections and the low power interior lights Just some futher pictures from the last few weeks all the NMEA connections are contained...