All internal structural panels in place

Here is the tool I use for rounding edges before laminating over, as here the transition between settee top and front. Easy, fast and consistent result.





I made a "bucket shape" to be acting as a recess for the external safety compartment hatch, I didn't like the idea of having a hatch extruding from the hull surface...

Internal face of the same part.

Rudder center web taping. Quite good access trough the aft cabin aft bulkhead cutout.

Starboard settee top taping. Looking forward from the aft cabin.

Main cabin view from the front bunk, photo rotated to imitate correct orientation of the hull.

I am currently on vacation, and I will have to finish my house rebuild when I get home, but hopefully I will be able to get most of the main hull exterior laminated during August.

First day summer holiday

On the first day of my holiday it was 13 deg and RAINING. So I got to work on the boat a bit. The front bunk top is glued in. Still the top tape to do, I will do that when the hull is up right.


The aft bunk top was also glued in. The same with the top taping.


The port side taping of the daggerboard case web is done. I put in a stiffener across at the aft end of the front bunk. Still to be taped:


I tacked in the rudder centre web. I'll do some of the taping before putting the rest of the aft deck on.


And I started the fitting of the starboard settee. I have to make an extra support under this one as I will make the front part of the starboard settee as well as the aft part of the front bunk hinged to give access to the head.


This is a picture to show the spacious front bunk looking past the daggerboard case on the port side.

More interior work

I got the glue flanges for the front bunk top made (I hate making those flanges) and today I painted the compartments to be more or less closed in with a layer of Top Coat. I planned on spraying in order to reach all areas, but it turned out to be a very "foggy" business so I converted to rolling. I have only removed the peel ply and gone over with a brief touch of sanding, but the finish seems to be quite good enough. Now comes the stage where I can collect from doing precise work and peel plying everything.
A shot from the very front point of the front bunk looking aft:


And from the very aft end of the aft cabin looking forward:


I also started shaping the bow:


As soon as all interior taping is done (except the up side down taping) I plan on turning the hull 180 degrees in order to do the now up side down taping. I will also shape the other side of the bow and front deck at that point before putting it the right way and start serious exterior work.

Mast foot construction

I visited the workshop the other day but the mast foot was not quite finished, still being welded. Here is a preliminary picture of it. It was strange to see how small it actually is considering all the forces it will be taking.

International F-22 builder meeting

It has been really busy lately and I have not been able to make much progress. I did however have the pleasure of the Danish builder Peter visiting me in my workshop on Sunday evening. We did not take any pictures but had a very nice talk about the F-22. Peter is also building an all carbon version. He ordered a mast foot from the same workshop as I will have all the metal parts fabricated from. I'm going to pick up the mast foot tomorrow.

I have done a few small things since the last update though. Here is the deck stringer uncovered. The conversion of method seems to have ended well after all.


I did the cut out for the anchor well hatch.


I laminated and bagged the aft bunk top. A really mess to do this with regular bagging as opposed to vacuum infusion, but I am out of the low viscosity resin required for this method.


I have prepared flange moulds for the front bunk.

Laminating keel reinforcements

After fairing the foam and filling a few gaps, grooves were made for the UD (deeper than necessary as it turned out) and a strip of peel ply for vacuum tape was laminated around the area to be reinforced. All carbon, peel ply, release film, bleeder and vacuum bag pieces were cut. The bag was taped to the hull on the lower side to prevent epoxy mess on the taping area, this worked very well. I made a small vacuum bag flange out from the dagger board slot. This is just prior to mixing epoxy.


This is just after all epoxy work is finished, looking for small leaks in the bag. We were able to pull about 80% vacuum (0,2 bar)


The very happy lamination team now looking forward to a cold beer.....


Epoxy starting to saturate the bleeder, heat cranked up over night.


The next morning, consumables removed to uncover a result to the builders' great satisfaction.

Starting outer skin lamination

I prepared for vacuum infusion of the deck stringer but didn't manage to get a full vacuum and had to convert to wet lay up and vacuum bagging. Good result in the end though.

Erik, with whom I was co-owner of Frimann in the beginning, is visiting this week end. He usually sails other kinds of sailing vessels these days but he was interested in laying hands on Panta Rei and we started the outer skin keel reinforcements.


Pre fairing the foam and a groove have been made for the UD tape. Hopefully we will laminate these reinforcements and bag it this week end. Mostly, we will play with the kids.

Tape and area reinforcements