Finally back to work

It has been a slow summer for the Phoenix project, life just kept diverting me from it. But I am back at it for the last 2 weeks or so. I have begun building the sides of the hull up back aft where the master cabin will be.

The first step is to build the molds to lay the fiberglass up on.The sides were built using 3/4" plywood that was covered with Formica on one side. The molds only need to hold up for a couple of days and then they are removed and trashed. So you try to build them out of inexpensive stuff. It does not matter that they look like Frankenstein on the outside.

 Looking aft on the Starboard side. The sloped part of the mold in the foreground is where the side drops down at the stairs which go up from the side deck to the Sun deck.

Here is a shot of the inside of the port side mold. Luckily she is fairly slab sided in this area. Only the Transom had any shape to it.

Looking at the inside of the transom. I used 1/4" Formica faced ply for this part. I need it to bend and due to the bend it holds it shape much better than if it was just flat.
The rectangular area in the corner is where the stairs down to the swim platform start. The first two steps will actually be in the boat. So only the first 2" in from each of the sides and the bottom of that rectangle will be glassed. That will form a recessed lip in the hull side. The stairs will be molded into that aft section of the deck and will a a lip that will overlap the one in the transom.

Onward!!





The next step was to cover the whole inside surface of the mold with white gelcoat.
You can see how I left the gel coat off in the center area of the rectangle for the stairs. There will be no glass work there.










Looking at the inside of the mold in the starboard side with the gelcoat applied.

View of the inside on the port side looking aft with the gel coat applied. I did not bother to put gelcoat on the lip at the top. That is the hull part of the hull to deck joint and will be covered by the deck which sits on top of that flange.





We did get a start on the glass work today but I too tired to go out and take pictures. Hope to get it done tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.