Day 100
134 Days Remaining

ONE HUNDRED NOT OUT! The 100th day of this blog and the Blackbird Project.

I am so close to finishing the boat and sending it away to get painted I can taste it!!
To get there I need to:

• Fit the decks.
• Fit the gantry take off points and the transom moulding.
• Make the gantry elements and assemble them ready for laminating
• Fit the bonnet with a proper closure system and fair in the mast stump fairing
• Fit the foredeck fairing/control system cover with a proper closure and get a final fit
• Do a trial fit of all of my lovely new Harken hardware.
• Fair the centreline of the hull after fitting the c/b case.
• Make the cups for the trolley (OK I have relented. I need a trolley as I need something to strap it to when it's on the roof of the car)
• Spend a day just fettling and tidying up on the detail as once it's painted I won't be able to touch it!

With my current workload, there's 2 weeks there.

So... Should be ready to go for paint by the 20th - that's 2 weeks from today, and it should be back by the 28th - a week or so later.  I might be able to get it over to Paul before then, but I'm just thinking worst case. In fact, looking at the pile of stuff on the dining room table at the moment, yeah, 2 weeks.

As for colour scheme you'll have to wait, but one thing is for certain, it won't be black! Besides the obvious cliche, as Cookie always says, black boats suck* and this one being nomex is going to be even worse if it does...

OK, in that week it is away, my plan is to:

• Make the rudder and tiller assembly....
• Finish of the gantry 
• Finish the first centreboard including the pit-head gear
• Make the outer wing bar tubes and do all the secondary laminating on the wings.
• Assemble the wand mech and push rods
• Build the bloody trolley!!
• ...and start making the mould for V2 of the c/b if possible

This lot will extend to the end of the month I think, but man by then I'll be REALLY close to going sailing!! Better start digging out my sailing kit!

D


*Black boats suck.... They get hot in the sun while rigging. The last check you do is a water check and put the bung in. The boat then gets launched and cools down and cools the air inside it, causing it to reduce the pressure inside the hull. Which causes it to suck.... It sucks water through every possible way the water can get in, including in thin laminate boats, right through the laminate. Bad idea.