More progress

We're moving forward quickly as our goal of being in the water by May 1 is fast approaching. The hard dodger is being glued and glassed into place this week. The detail work around the helm stations has been finished and they have been primed, ready for painting.

The picture at the left shows a plinth for the clutches, and another plinth for the winch. The compass will be set into the mound and it is flanked by sheet bins.
The picture on the right shows the chain pipe take takes chain from the windlass to the chain locker. The windlass will be mounted roughly where you see the green tape.

A couple more joinery pictures were added here.

Solar panels

Today they started

installing the solar panels on the hard dodger. Joe, the guy in the blue sweatshirt, found that we could orient them as you see and reduce the wiring difficulty. The wiring will enter a channel in the dodger along either outside edge and then down the forward frames and into the boat. It's pretty exciting to see starting to be installed! The dodger is going to be complete fairly soon.

Dodger is painted

The painted dodger was lowered onto the boat late this afternoon.

It's the first piece of the boat to be fully painted and it looks beautiful. The exterior is a high gloss white and the interior has a matte finish. The handholds, inside and out feel very solid and look great.

Because it inhibits the steady flow of workers in and out of the boat, the dodger will only be on the boat for a day or so to check out some wiring channels and double check the location of the lights. Then it will be removed and they will begin installing the solar panels and related wiring. In 4-6 weeks it will return to the boat to be glassed in place before the deck is painted.

More pictures in the Deck and Dodger section of the photos.