Building the walk through cockpit version of Harrigami.

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Week 12: Monday 17th Feb - Friday 21st Feb 2003

If you are wondering what this boat will look like once completed then look at the CAD images in the Walk through cockpit version of Harrigami Gallery.

Our priority for this week was to get the leeward hull closed up and finished. We joined the two deck halves by placing them onto the hull. The bulkheads were trimmed back where necessary and when all was sitting firmly in place the join was taped with a layer of uni glass.

There is quite a lot of preparation necessary before the deck is fitted permanently as much of the inside is inaccessible when closed. We used a technique sometimes referred to as 'dummy taping'. Thin scrap of plywood are covered in packaging tape and laid over the bulkheads to replicate the deck shell. The bulkheads are then filleted and taped as usual and the plywood removed once the epoxy has cured. What you have left are fiberglass tape flanges. In other areas the bulkheads were either doubled with more plywood or backed with timber to provide a larger gluing area. The inside glassed surfaces were all given a final brushed coat of epoxy to completely seal them.

Plenty of glue was put onto all mating surfaces and the deck carefully lowered onto the hull. Scrap timber was then screwed across the join for alignment and to hold the deck down firmly while the glue set. The inside seam is not accessible forward of the bulkheads so temporary holes were cut out to provide arms length access for bogging and taping. These are permanently closed off with the piece cut out once all taping is done. A permanent hatch was cut near the mast which provides access between the bulkheads. This allowed us to crawl inside to fillet and tape the bulkheads, mast ringframes and the hull/deck join.

The outside hull/deck seam was ground bogged and glassed. The beam socket and rudder case holes were cut away and taped and the hatch flange made. Meanwhile we were also making the three walkways, adding stiffeners to the underside of the bridgedeck as well as fairing the rest of the boat.

This pretty well finishes the main structure of the boat. Next week we will be working on all the final details such as the foam bows, trampolines, doorway, hatches, top mast bearing etc etc, and lots of fairing. Then we will build the mast and boom.

Hours : 935

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