Foils

Day 1 of making sawdust!!!

For me, this project is as much about the therapy as about the end result of creating a boat. I desperately need a distraction from my stressful  full-time job (I work for a local financial institution), a small business hairdressing business we are growing with the help of my 2 daughters, and my father-in-law's battle with a terminal illness. My on and off bouts of depression in the past 20 months seem to be under control now, so this diversion should be a great help in maintaining the status quo. My lovely and understanding wife, who herself also has a stressful job as a nurse, is very supportive, so I'm extremely lucky.

Anyway, enuff guff. Today I dove in and cut the staves for the foils. The foil staves were cut from lightweight Paulownia, with the leading and trailing edges, which take the knocks, being cut from Tasmanian Oak, a local hardwood.

Paulownia is a super light weight and fast growing timber, with the highest strength to weight ratio of any timber, or so I've read. I'll also be using it extensively for the framing timbers and chinelogs.

The hull will be skinned with 6mm Okoume (Gaboon) marine ply, but the ply is not expected to arrive for at least a couple of months, so I may as well start with the foils and then the spars.

This pic shows the staves which have small pins driven in to help keep the staves located during the glue up. Note the pins have been snipped off to remain proud by only a couple of mm. oops, missed one!

The rudder blank glued up using polyurethane glue. The clamps were removed after 3 hours. There is a slight twist in the trailing edge, but this can be dealt with in the shaping. A couple of the staves had edges that were not square. Will have to watch that when I glue up the centreboard...