David Tyler wrote:
"To my astonishment, the whole thing looks remarkably fair!"
- indeed it does, and she's going to be a pretty little ship. Did you have to adjust the curvature on the edges of those forward bulkheads that we added as a result of making the model?
Yes, indeed we did, David. Marcus did the fairing here: it's really difficult. Bulkheads 0 and 1 are actually slightly too small - we couldn't get any bevel on the plywood. Fortunately, I'd been generous with the framing. The bevel on the chine log between bulkhead 3 and the bow would have been beyond my skills, I believe - or at least there would have been a
lot of thick epoxy required. It curves in both planes and finally, has to end up butted to the topside panel, as you can see in the photos. The temporary bulkhead at No 2 was more trouble than it was worth and I removed it before putting the first layer of 6mm on the starboard side. Putting in the bilge stringer corrected the shape, making the required curve as it was forced into place. (Incidentally, you forgot that a floor is required abaft no 2, for the keel bolts! No problem: I've been given some purple heart which will be perfect for the job.)
I actually have tortured the 12mm on the topsides panel - there is a hollow in it, which looks great. It took quite a lot of work to achieve that and I'm going to put dowels at 100 mm intervals all around this area, through the framing and bulkheads, before I final fair the hull. In fact, I'm going to glue in 'trunnels' at 300 mm centres all along the framing. Belt and braces!