Plans Change

Long story, but I decided to cancel my trip to New Zealand. I had been winding down on the boat the last week or so prior to my trip, but got back to it this week.

I got 16' of bilge planks fitted on each side. I ended up fitting a mid-bilge stringer as shown in the Romany, but not Vardo plans. I was a bit nervous about the 9mm spec'd for the bilge panels and felt the stringer would help. I sheathed the inside of all panels with biaxial glass which makes it roughly as stiff as 12mm would have been. The stringer made fitting and shaping of the sides and bottom much easier. Hans said he was OK without chine logs or stringers, but it seems like it would be rather difficult without either.

I shaped the forward outboard side to see how it went and found it's rather difficult to access especially near amidships due to the low roof height. Doing any trimming of the bilge to bottom joint amidships is near impossible. My current plan is to finish fitting the bilge planks then roll the hull 90 degrees to do the seams and fit the second bottom lamination. I had originally planned to glass to the waterline in this position, but I really don't have the access.