More tweaks

Finished battens installation.  The Transom / station 8 transition is problematic and will take some time to get fare.  Might be possible to start chipping on the keelson by the weekend.  The actual transom will be built up like a cell structure with marine ply with a thin wall.

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Discovered station 7 mould was all messed up at several loft points.  Removed mould, modified and reinserted.  Now the real FF15 shape is in place.  CAD drawing must be a curve fit issue.

Marine ply has arrived and keelson routing is about to begin.  Seems like the coldmould form will work well for router guide to cut much of the keelson rabbit.
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The peculiar shape in the aft area of the hull that I have seen in the loft lines and the construction of the keelson.  Between stations 6 and 8 the hull surface is concave.  IS THIS RIGHT?  You can see it in the battens adjacent to the keel or in the schematic showing the gap compared to an arc.  I suppose FF sailors don't spend too much time rubbing their boats underbelly but if you happen to know and this looks normal please let me know.  Thanks.

This picture shows the transom station at the picture bottom then station 8.  Beyond that the battens sink to station 7 then back up to 6.











I am wishing now I had perhaps skipped on using the plywood for mould forms.  I will probably have to attach blocks of wood fore and aft of these stations to get more reliable attachment points.  So far not to bad but the stem is going to be a bit of a sculpting job.


Meanwhile somewhere out in the Pacific a stack of marine ply is headed this way from Seattle.  I expect a call from the docks anytime soon then some hokus pokus on finding a place to put it.

This shows a first fitting of the keelson within the moulds.  Just a small bit of trimming needed.  This will be set accurately in place once a set of battens are fitted up to make the true inner hull surface.  Time to make lots of battens.

Shifting gears a bit and planning to cut keelson while it is sitting in the molds and battens that form the cold mold profile.  Checking the keelson with laser it is pretty tight with a small 3/8" skew at the stem.  The stem has quite a bit of meat on it so there should be no problem sculpting it out.  Flipped the keel over and rechecked the laser line and double checked with a tool to mark the top and bottom center. 

There are some obvious oops in the lamination, basically too much wood that will be cutoff anyway.  The 3-4-5 station areas are looking good and flow easily from fore and aft.  Lots of routing though, probably get kicked out of the neighborhood.

Did some tune up on the base and bolstered the ends, added straight line and set square marks normal to it at each station.   The transom location is approximate but lots of room to work with.  Raised baseline 11/16 inch so the molds will ride above the line and tape.  Started fitting molds, work goes fast, spacing is easy and accurate so thinking about fabricating the long battens, stringers, whatever they are called that go over the molds and which the strips get laid out on for the hull. 

 Had the keel jig sections reset on keel to mark off all the station lines.  This helped out a bit.  I think now these can be taken apart to wood or scrap.