Launched...!

After weeks of frantic activity aimed at finishing the boat in time, "Astrid" was eventually launched on monday 16th May, roughly 3 years after the build started.
The boat was launched in the waters of the Venice lagoon in Italy and the following day it participated to this year's VeLa raid a 5 days' sail around the famous lagoon.

Great satisfaction, lots of fine tuning, a few minor technical setbacks. All in all the boat performed up to the highest of expectations.
I am particularly pleased with its stability, sea keeping ability and shelter offered to its crew. On the first day of VelaRaid, we sailed a 22 mile stretch with our three and six year old sons in full safety and comfort.

More to come soon ....

Deck caulking

Busy weekend last weekend. Other than the mainmast, time was dedicated to caulking the deck using a polyurethane based black sealant.
In all I used 9 cartridges , using a hand operated gun to squeeze out the glue. Professional builders use pneumatic guns for the task and I quickly understood the reason why: it's so hard and tiresome to do it by manual strength alone!

Priori to applying the sealant, the teak strips have been protected by masking tape leaving out only the gaps, ready to receive the a coat of primer followed by the black goop.

After removal of the tape the results are encouraging and the required amount of sanding feels mangeable. We'll see if I'm wrong in saying that!

Birds are out

Spring's here, birds are out singing.... perfect season to be outside building a birdsmouth main mast!

Lots of epoxy, tie-wraps but luckily the electrical cable to power the masthead light didn't get stuck in the glue.

out in the sun

After weeks of dusty garage.... Finally getting an early morning sun ray... The se a is only 2 km away...

Coamings !

Coamings are on.  I went for a slightly different shape than the one drawn in the plans.  The shape evolved by iteration between sighting,  tracing and planing.

All along I worried whether it'd be too low to keep water out or too high and have a bulky look.  I'm happy with the result,  only experience will say whether they work as they should.
I will add a mahogany capping profile to protect the upper edge.


In this photo the inboard arrangement is also visible.

  Tested the motor and it works ok.  I need to finalise the belt driven water cooling pump....  That's on tonight's to-do list!!

Bow to the king..... plank!

After days of slow progress today I finally
fitted the teak king plank to the foredeck.  What slowed down the progress was the required in situ bending and glueing of the teak strips along the deck.  The curved shape meant I could only glue two strips per day,  one each side, as clamps were needed to help hold the strips in place and keep the bend as the Epoxy cured.  The presence of the clamps prevented in most cases the next neighbouring strip to be glued at the same time.

Anyhow a milestone has been reached today as the king plank was finally laid down onto the deck.  Bow to the king....  As the focus now shifts to the coamings....

Teak side decks

The side decks have been successfully dressed with teak strips.... lots of bend and elastic energy but ... in epoxy we trust!