Still needs fairing but this is enough to survive the winter. To be continued next summer.

Started work on the mold for the keel bulb (lead).

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.