I used some leftover carbon cloth to make a little bracket for the tiller, near the rudder stock.

The bracket connects the two sides of the tiller to handle torsion loads. It also creates a local reinforcement of the tiller for a rudder stop (a simple rope attached to the eye bolts).

I also test fitted the carbon goose neck fitting on the boom. It’s a bit scary drilling holes in an almost finished carbon boom ….. I had to drill the holes in the solid laminate, not in the fragile foam sandwich. That worked out OK.

Last weekend I wanted to go sailing on the Jeanneau to profit from a couple of windy days. As I stepped on board I saw a bird escape from under the sail cover!

I took a look. It was a real mess under there and I prepared to clean it all up. As I looked a little better I saw a very active nest with 2 (very recent) newborns and 3 eggs!

I decided to postpone my sailing plans and give this nest a fighting chance instead. I hope mother (or father) returns to the nest …..

Back to finishing the dinghy. Putting Kiwgrip on the floors and seats did not take much time.

Still to do: a rub rail. I intend to use a simple PVC hose and I’m testing different glues.

It took a remarkable large amount of paint to (more or less) cover the two halves of the dinghy inside and out: almost 4 litres.

And I didn’t even paint the floors! I will probably use some leftover Kiwigrip for those.

The new primer I ordered has arrived. Unfortunately that also means sanding (and a little fairing) in preparation for paint ….. Making a fibreglass axis for the wheels was a more satisfying job.

In the process of putting primer on the dinghy but I got distracted by two old wheels. And I ran out of primer half way through the job …..