After the second boat lunch party in August 2022, there have been a lot of little addons that needed building which I have been working on until September 2023:
- An engine mount which I pre-laminated in the workshop and then epoxied on at the beach. Not a very ideal way of working but, it turned out solid and looks okay.
- I did need antifouling as I was not ready to sail jet but wanted to leave the boat in the water.
- Make the cockpit self-draining. Therefore I had to guess and drill holes into the windward side of the hull and build a hatch in the middle of the cockpit.
- Build a space where winches, lines, and cleats could be fixed. I used some 5mm pieces of carbon laminate which I had, which would have sufficient strength and would not rot no matter where I would drill into.
- Overthinking I planned to have lots of lines for the traditional Proa rig(2) and the sheats, for the kite rig – power triangle as I call it (2), and the sea anchors (3). Adding up to 7 lines per direction – meaning 14 lines to be fixed and released at will. I thought that the constrictor clamps would be great, as they are ridiculously expensive I tried to build them myself. I used aramid rope as the clamping rope which on the “lose-ende” was fixed on a brace tube, for the line to excite. The “lose-ende” was pre-tensioned with a strong rubber line and had a line to open the aramid-clamping-line. The “fixed-ende” of the aramid clamping line had been built of another brace tube laminated to the hull. It kind of worked, but at high tension, it would suddenly slip, in particular if the pre-tension was too low. Also, I had the load of the “fixed-end” transferred not via the brace tube but slightly offset through three holes where I tightened the aramid–clamping line. That offset has been too large (20mm) and the “fixed-end” aramid line would slip off under high load. Further, I did not jet-build something to set them as “open” (pulling against the pretension – shortening the aramid clamping line and thereby opening it). I have also been lacking the space in the cockpit.
- For all these lines to go to where I needed them, I built two 7-stack pulli blocks. It took me two attempts to make it. The first glass fiber frame I built to put the wheels in was impossible to take out of its mold. Separating the lamination process into smaller bits did the magic. The pulley blocks were laminated onto the main hull just before the crossbeam, enabling the lines for the cockpit to go either straight to the front tip of the boat or across to the front of the outrigger.
- The crossbeams needed (well or was it just the fear of me) something to prevent the lashing from getting loose by slipping off to the sides or to somewhere with a smaller cross-section
This has been quite some work while moving the boat, and the workshop a few times (from summer 2022 to summer 2023), and testing little things. Well handling the little setbacks and reality checks which often told my fearful self, that there is still more work to do. A brief list of things I still like to do before sailing longer distances are and have not done jet at the point of writing:
- Gluing in the floorboards inside, with a watertight screwed hatch so even if the boat is completely flooded it will keep some buoyancy due to the locked-in air.
- All electronic, in particular the anchor – navigation light and solar system. It would be nice to have a depth sounder, speed measurement, and VHF radio.
- Finish the traditional proa sail and masts set-up
- Make the hatches to the cabins as watertight as possible.
- Build lids for my storage – kitchen box.
- Oh and build that kite rig and kite line system : )