Thursday, May 8, 2008

Sheathing and Fairing

With both hulls fully sheathed with Xynole polyester cloth, we have now proceeded with the fairing and priming processes. Below is the port hull after the sheathing was completed.

Fairing begins with filling the weave of the cloth with more coats of epoxy, thickened with phenolic microballoons and silica. This mixture creates an easy to sand surface with minimal sags and runs.

The fairing process continues with low spots being filled to the same level as the rest of the hull and then sanded fair using a batten to determine what needs more filling or sanding.

Below you can see the port hull, along with one of the crossbeams, now with a first coat of primer applied.

The mast case built onto the mast beam is also in the process of fairing, and all the intricate surfaces had to be sheathed the same as everything else.

Below is the mast beam, sheathed and faired, almost ready for primer.

Here are the three complete beams, primed and almost ready to paint. We will also build a forth, smaller beam for a rear netting beam, but it will be a simple hollow spar section of Douglas fir rather than a complex triangle section like the main beams.

The mast that Scott Williams built last week has also been finished sanded to a perfectly round section and coated with epoxy.

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