The last big piece of the puzzle is now done. The deck and transom came out of the mold this morning after a nice 12 hour bake at 43c.
I was on my own for this stage as the two amigos were busy being latin lovers (girlfriends visiting from home) so they were taking time out to spend time with their ladies!
No worries though as the laying up was quite smooth. The joy of working with a slow hardener is great. It really gives you time to work without panicking.
So it was the same process as before … mr. Miagi style.. wax on , wax off x5 in the mold. Then lay down the first layer of twill weave carbon (an extra layer near the centre to improve dent resistance), then the 5mm corecell, followed by the biaxial carbon.
The vacuum bagging was better this time round although I did come back in to check an hour later to notice I’d lost vacuum due to the tacky tape heating up and going soft. Easy enough to track down though and the whole piece popped out looking nice and consolidated.
Then I trimmed it up and slotted everything together just to see it take shape. I’m pleased to announce that at this stage the hull, deck, nosecone and bulkheads come in at 7.5 kilos which is nicely on target.
I then had to chop into my masterpiece to allow the wingbars to sink in to the deck.
Really love all this. I’m very envious! Amazingly fast progress.