Filling the weave

Quite a bit of the weave was showing, even though, after the initial wetting of the fiberglass, I waited about an hour and a half, till it was kind of dry and came back and added a second coat. By the next morning, there were no dry or starved cloth places, but the weave certainly needed filling.  I went and got some of the west system 710, listed on their chart as easiest to sand.  Then, using the reflection from the lights, squeegeed on a thickened mixture of epoxy and microballons.  Above is what it looks like now.

Yes, I know it looks bad, but I assume that since it is 710, it should sand off for a nice finish.  Certainly I now see the waxy residue that everyone talks about needed to be scrubbed off. The wax shows itself upon running a fingernail over the surface.

Glassing the rudder and leeboard

Both sides are now glassed.  Have to trim the excess,wet and seal the edges and fill the weave.

Glassing the hull

First try at draping the fabric

Side @

I know you are probably saying right here "Damn ... what a nice looking boat", I would not disagree

First coat of epoxy done.  White spots are bondo.

 Weave seemed to show thru after a good first coat. Decided to wait for it to harden a little and come back with a second coat, to achieve chemical bonding while it was still forming up.  all second coat done now, hope it looks really good in the morning.

Leeboard backing plate and foot pedal steering crossbar installation

Here you see the foot pedal steering crossbar installed

Here you see the foot pedal steering installed with the foot pedals attached, pending the rudder lines installation

  Leeboard backing plate. Boat turned on it's side, so the weight presses straight down

   Leeboard backing plate showing how possibly good  fresh PL adhesive can do for fillets is you spread it before it forms a skin.

How to connect the crossbeams to the amas

So, connecting the crossbeams to the amas......you could lay the 3 inch aluminum tubing directly on top of the amas and connect using a treaded bolt and washer.  But, that would tend to make the crossbeam itself  dig in the water when the leeward ama is being pushed down, potentially really slowing you down.  But a place called high performance silicone hoses makes aluminum 90's from 1 inch all the way to 4 1/2 inches in diameter.

This one pretty much says it all....Look carefully....on the left, you see the inside of an ama, where a piece of  wood goes from one side of the ama to the other side and is glued in.  Then a grey piece of fiberglass tubing from a ham radio build your own tower website place up in Georgia goes into a hole.  That hole does not go all the way thru the wood base.  Rather a hole saw made a groove in the wood for the outer diameter of the fiberglass tube, yet, it still did not fit, as the inner diameter had to have another smaller hole saw use the same pilot hole to make a groove for the inner diameter. now the fiberglass tube fits the groove and can be glued in.  Also notice the tube is next to a bulkhead..Conceivably a set of holes are drilled into the bulkhead and a ziptie zips the tube to the bulkhead, as well as epoxy of PL fillets.  On the right above, you see how the ama top goes over the fiberglass tube, nice tight fit and then an aluminum tube goes into the  fiberglass tube as a spacer and finally the 90 degree aluminum bend goes in.  Also notice the word "ok"  That is where a few wraps of wetted fiberglass goes around the  90 bend so that it will be a snug fit in the crossbeam tubing..  So, what you are seeing above is 2 amas, one with out a lid and one with a lid .

I am still deciding which way to go on this, but I think that the 90 degree bend is the way to go. It has the effect of putting the crossbeams about 14 inches above the ama.  A cotter pin secures the pieces together.

Amas started

To me.....anyone can build a center hull for a trimaran.....Where the rubber meets the road is the building of ama (outrigger floats)   Here I have my daughter helping me glue and staple the shoe molding to the 8 inch 1/8 inch side panels of the amas.    So...finally I am starting the amas

above is a picture of the shoe molding and the P:L construction adhesive used to glue it up.  That stuff gets everywhere.

Cockpit doubler and the chair part 2

Here is a shot of the glued up cockpit doubler.    a piece of 3/4 by 1 1/2 added to the inside of the chine rails for tortional stiffness.

and here are 2 shots of the chair now that the cockpit doubler has been added.  Notice the picture of the chair rail from behind the chair above.  Notice that the cockpit doubler has perfectly filled the chairs arm rail cavity. But then see the picture from the side.  The front of the chair is still not flush with the boat.  I am hesitant to cut the front of the chair anymore than I already did, so I think for the front part of the chairs armrails that I will form a wedge of wood to fill in the area between the boat and front of chairs arm.