Started work on the mold for the keel bulb (lead). Next step is shaping the foam.

Hardware for outhaul, reefing points, gooseneck et cetera mounted on the boom. This way I will not be tempted to keep fairing and painting. I’ve settled for an industrial look ….

I took the carbon tiller home again to avoid damaging it.

I wasn’t very productive this summer but I managed to do some fairing (doghouse) and painting (boom, goose neck, tiller):

Wind, hail and lightning after ‘hittegolf’.

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.