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THE MOLD
This is the frame work for the mold. In the background, you can see our 40' cargo container, which we used as a shop and stored our tools, etc. in. (The structure is not up yet.)
FINISHING THE MOLD
Dave has added stringers to the mold. And, here he is stapling on the skins, which are made out of strips of 1/8" mohogany veneers. (In the background, you can see how the boatyard looked 6 years ago. Today, there are rows and rows of boats.)
PANEL MAKING
Here, we have stapled four layers of mahogany strips to the mold and coated them with epoxy. Then, we covered them with a layer of plastic and sealed the edges. The tube runs along the top and has holes on each side and a vacuum pump on each end. When we turned on the pumps, the vacuum compressed the panels to make them very dense and strong.
FOLLOWING THE PLANS
After the structure was up, Dave brought in a large trailer. Then, he built a work bench on top of it. And, we built the boat on top of that.
FIBERGLASSING PANELS ON THE HANGAR FLOOR
We placed plywood sheets on saw horses. Then, we layed fiberglass on top and squeegied epoxy on top of that. Next, we placed them on the hangar floor and rolled thickened epoxy over the fiberglass. (This was much easier than trying to put on fiberglass over our heads!)
RAISING THE AMA
This took more brains than brawn! To raise the ama, we eventually used several jacks, ropes and come-alongs.
THE INTERIOR
This picture was taken from the galley. Basically, it shows the center aisle of three sections since the counters and berth extend into the akas. The floor isn't in yet, so it looks deeper than it actually is. The galley is on the right and the settee is on the left. Here, you are looking at the berth (left) and counter (right). Next is the dressing room, head and holding tank.