Starboard Float Raised Deck Installed

This weekend I finally got prepped out the installation of the Raised Deck portion of the Starboard float. This required the careful measuring and trimming of the deck piece and then working it into position on the frame mold. I measured everything and carefully put the marks in place and then measured and checked again before turning out the lights and going in for the evening.

It has been my experience that measurements will sometimes magically "change" overnight if I'm tired, plus it's always easier to trim off a little more than cut too much off in the first place. I think we've all heard that expression, "I cut it three times and it's STILL too short!"

So the next morning, I measured everything again (using metric this time - just because) and committed to making the trim cuts. After a little sanding and some help from my daughter we got the piece installed and secured without much of a problem. Now I just need to wait on some funding for the next foam order to finish up the planking on this half and we can finally get this thing moving in the right direction again.

The upper edge of carbon will be trimmed off to the proper height before the two halves are mated.

I left the lashing tube long on both sides to allow for trimming later on.
It's always preferable to trim off excess instead of wishing it were a little longer.

Those big triangle pieces will be trimmed off once the rest of the foam is laid in place.
Tthey are only serving as "filler" for now

High Winds & No Power

This past weekend we had very high winds (I heard reports of gusting to 60mph (96.5kph))!
The resulted was some fascia and eve trim being ripped off my house and blown into the neighbors yard three doors down. My neighbors lost some shingles and a lot of tree branches got broken.
The wind also broke fifteen telephone poles resulting in no power for 18 hours on Saturday.

As a result of all the hoopla, I didn't get much done except for boring some holes in the Upper Folding Strut sides and laminating the inner raised deck panels for both floats. I wrapped both of them in 13oz carbon 0/90, which will provide a lot of strength in this area without adding a lot of weight. Next weekend I'll work on getting one of the panels installed on the float frames so it'll be ready for additional processing whenever I can afford another carton of foam and some more epoxy.

We had fun though, it wasn't very cold and the storm happened during the day so it was fun to watch. I cranked up the generator every few hours to keep things from spoiling in the refrigerators, but otherwise we just sat around and talked. It's great when the family spends time talking and laughing when the electronic distractions go away.

In other news, I did manage to scrape together enough money to settle up with Uncle Sam.... That's the good news, the bad news is that I'm down to one piece of foam and half a pail of epoxy.
It's enough material to keep me occupied with some small parts while I get the project finances back in order, but I think it'll all work out since spring is here now and I've got some yard projects to take care of as soon as the weather settles down a bit.

But for now, here are some photos of weekend progress:

Inside half of the flat "raised deck" section for both floats prepped for hand-lamination.

13oz Carbon 0/90 laid out and ready for epoxy

Working slowly and carefully to ensure an even wet-out and good fiber orientation. the carbon is then covered with Peel-Ply and smoothed down by rolling with a length of PVC pipe

I left this to cure for about five hours to ensure the fabric would stay in place when flipped over so I could work on the other side.

After working the material onto the flat "top" side, I flipped them back over for final cure.
One of these will be trimmed up to fit into the starboard float next weekend while the other one gets stored for use later on on the Port float.