Starboard Float Inboard Half

Any time you start something new there's always a learning curve involved, which to me is really the best part of doing anything anyway. I just love picking up the tricks of the trade and due to my inherent laziness I am always trying to figure out a quicker and better way to get something done.

So, back to work laying in the foam.

Since I have some pre-fabrication work to do on the net lashing tube for both floats, I decided to start laying in the foam on the rear section of the float just aft of the raised area. This area of the float tapers and curves like a cone so I decided to use 6" (150mm) strips from start to finish. That was a great decision as that width lays down really easily and conforms very well.
On the previous half I made the strips go down at a slight angle and then across the bottom and back up the other side at nearly the same angle as I was trying to keep things in line as much as possible on both sides. This worked OK, but did cost a few edge cuts to allow the foam to sit well. I also had to spend a lot of extra time working the foam into place before inserting the screws.

On this half I have done a few things different that really helped a lot.
First, the smaller strip size really works well in these areas with tighter curves.
Second, I start my work on the side of the float that will eventually be the "top".  This side has the hard curve area where it transitions from the "top" of the float down to the "side". I measure from the top of the frame to the middle of that curve and then make a slight pencil mark on the foam strip to show where the curve should be. Once that's done, I just concentrate heat on both sides of the strip in that location and out about 12" (300mm) on either side of the pencil mark. The heating period takes maybe a minute on both sides. As the foam starts to heat up, I can push down on it near the location of bend with my fist and push the top of the foam with my chest up against the battens. The idea is the get most of the bend in place and the foam somewhat pliable before pushing it down into the framing. Now this is the fun part, once I start pushing the foam into place with one hand, I keep the heat gun on that area until I'm happy with the seated location. Then I switch the heat gun to LOW and place it on the battens in such a way that it's blowing warm air at the other end of the foam. I keep the heat gun far enough away that it doesn't cause any damage, it's just sorta "warming things up". Meanwhile, I start working the clamps in position to hold the foam nice and firmly against that big curve. Once that's good, I only need to apply a little bit of heat on the "top" side to make the foam conform to the slight bend there and then I put the gun back on LOW and aimed at the other end of the foam again while I insert all the screws on the side I just finished. Once that's done, I move to the other side and get it clamped down and secured. It doesn't take very long since there isn't as much of a curve there and the foam is already a little warmed up.
And finally, I laid the first strip vertically down the "top" side and let the other side sit where it wanted to naturally fall. This turned out to be a great decision, since the rest of the strips are falling right into place with very little coaxing.

This was done in less than three hours, so I'm down to about 20 minutes/strip.

The fit is looking really nice

This is the largest gap I have near the "big curve" not bad at all

In this picture, I'm trying to show how the near side of the foam goes down vertically (up against the raised section of the deck) and then back up the other side at a skewed "natural" angle.

Moving on to the Wingnet Support, I wanted to slightly raise the inboard section of that area in order to better line up with the beam attachment points (shown as saddle attachments in the picture below). I also wanted to have a built-in and reinforced tubing area that would not have to be installed later and would be able to stand up to the pressure of someone putting all their weight in that area. You can see in the photo how this inboard corner will be a natural area to stand and needs to be strong enough to take the weight plus support the nets.

And yes, I did run this minor modification past Ian.
His only comment was to make sure I modified the bulkhead shape to suit.

Proposed Wingnet support tube

This photo was turned upside down to show a physical representation of the idea with nearly the correct angles replicated.
The top side (with the double layer of foam) will be Pre-Fabricated (glued and wrapped in a layer of glass) before being placed into position in the float and butted up against the other piece of foam. I may also put in a second piece of foam on the angled section going "down".