A bunch of small jobs

 Work on the boat over the Labor Day weekend consisted of a bunch of small jobs that really don't look like much to friends and family.  The most visible mini-project was reinforcing  the bow prod receiver tube with carbon fiber.  To do this, I used small bits of 1/4" plywood to "fill in the gaps" between the hull and to protruding tube, and then laid 12 oz. carbon fiber clot over the whole thing.  

The next task was to simply trim off the excess when the epoxy set.


The other big(ger) task over the weekend was to reinforce the seams between the cabin and the deck, and between the cockpit floor and the sides.  In both cases, I used biax tape which I wetted out ahead of time.  All of these seams are "outside" curves (even though they are inside the boat) with gravity as the enemy.  An extra set of hands would have been nice, since it took quite a bit of time to get the tape to stick.  In any case, the reinforcements looked really smooth after they were done.  Once the tape was in place, I then filled in the gap between the cabin and the deck with thickened epoxy.


Bow Prod Extension and Retraction


Thinking a bit ahead, I'm planning on having a very simple bow prod extension mechanism, with a pulley on frame 18 and a line running straight back through the cabin bulkhead to a jam cleat.  I'm planning on having the spin tack line run right through the center of the prod and out the tip (which I still need to fabricate).  The tack line would also double-duty as the pole retraction cord.  The tack line will also run though the cabin bulkhead and will cleat right next to the prod extension line.  Of course all of this may change, but that's the plan for now.