Unfortunate happening

I guess this is what you have to pay for trying to do things better than before.  The way the shrouds are attached to the mast has been given a lot of thought, and I still think I ended up with a very good solution proposed and made in cooperation with John Franta of Colligo Marine.  Just a matter of correct sizing to make things work.  I allready got new lines in the post the day before this happened.

Mast still on the Link SP II total hip replacement ball after falling over

No visible damages and after changing to the new attachment lines the more practical vertical posistion was regained



Then put the mast back down making ready for launch

Daggerboard

Finally got the daggerboard out of the mould. Looks great. Quite a bit taller than me.  Need a bit of paint.

Painted with a generous coat of epoxy primer

And fitted while the boat was suspended in a crane in Guttorm's farm.

Launched.

I apologise for not responding to all tips, tricks and good wishes lately.  I've been busy at work and finishing the boat. I launched around last midnight. Now I'm going for sea trials. I'm racing this week end.  I'll get back to the blog when time.

BTW she floats so high I was afraid she would turn sunny side down when folded, so pulled her back on the trailer and unfolded before relaunch.  Sailed 2,5 knots in about no wind at all on the mast alone.  It was dark, no visibility at all and raining.

Party!

I had good helpers, friends and family over last Sunday to celebrate and officially giving her the name "Panta Rei" while my wife poured Calvados over the float.  My brother in law OJ took a lot of nice pictures, enjoy.

Navnefest for Panta Rei

Daggerboard

It has been an extremely long way up to actually start making the daggerboard.  Making the files for milling the moulds turned out to be more of a challenge than expected, and when I finally got the moulds it turned out a big void had been created when I glued the MDF-boards together.  But I finally got to start the actual build today, and hopefully I will have the board in a few days.  Due to limited space on my vacuum table I have to make one half at the time.

After sanding the epoxy I applied two layers of mould sealer and 5 layers of mould release.

Then all the cut outs for High Density inserts was made, and the HD inserts were shaped by hand.  Foam blanks had been made on the CNC along with the moulds.

Cutting carbon for the skin and structural reinforcements

Ready for lamination. Vacuum bag attached at left, release film and breather visible in front.

The carbon for the first half waiting

Starboard daggerboard half under vacuum.

Pulling hard....

Mould, foam and carbon for port half waiting for available vacuum table...

All those couple of hundred small things.... part 5

I have been more busy trying to sort all those things out than taking pictures and posting updates.  So launch day is getting closer.  I got the rest of the folding system done, with the bumpers and folded retaining system.  Picture of one of the retaining brackets.

I've been splicing bow pole side stays and front net forward wires.  No pictures at the moment.  All float hatches have been sealed and attached.  The side nets are more or less attached.  Does any of you F-22 sailors come up with a clever way to lash the nets to let the boat remain foldable?  I haven't yet.

After I had the name giving celebration last Sunday roller furling line leads have been attached.  Still some splicing to do on a bow pole lead for the screacher furler.

Today I got the long awaited USPS shipment from Colligo Marine containing soft pad eyes and loops for attaching the head sail halyard blocks.  Hopefully I will find some time to get these on tomorrow, after a daggerboard session.

Rig weighed

I got the mast including five halyards, standing rigging, antenna and wind transducer on the scale the other day.  I was a bit disappointed as it showed 64,9 kg.  The good part is the top was only 26.