The guys at RMI were working hard during the month of December to have Nashua's hull ready in time to turn over on schedule in early January. The hull was successfully cold molded using the vacuum bag technique, which minimizes the amount of glue needed for bonding the laminates to the hull planking keeping weight down dramatically. After that, a final layer of Fir planking was added fore and aft to hide the diagonal laminates and to create a stiff and more durable outer layer.
One thing we all take for granted during this stage is how much work goes into fairing the hull before painting. The goal is to have a bump free totally fair hull surface to allow the boat to move as quickly through the water as possible and this is all done by the grunt force of manual labor. Using 2ft long sanding boards, workers move back and forth over the hull in a criss cross pattern to get rid of any high or low shapes in the hull. When the hull is smooth and fair, multiple coats of an epoxy primer get applied to the hull with fairing in between.
We thought it was a good idea at this time to have RMI mold splashes from the hull shape. These will be used as a sort of stand to support the boat in the off season and if we ever decide to ship the boat somewhere. We took advantage of doing this while the boat was still upside down. This pushed the turn over date forward a couple days, but we will be glad we did it later on.
Terry and I drove up from Newport meeting Jeremy, Russ, and Wendy who had just flown in from California to see the boat turn and partake in some critical decision making. It was a cold morning, with forecasts in the single digits and snow on the ground, and Nashua came out of the red RMI building just after lunch. She was turned over in the travel lift and placed onto a trailer to be brought back inside for the first time in the upright position. It was amazing to see the boat transform from mostly just a shape to a beautiful utilitarian object.
With the boat right side up we all go the chance to inspect the interior before any systems get installed and take note at a few items that are different with this boat then we saw on Equus, mostly the wooden floor structure which was an added bronze feature on Equus.
Now, it is a new year and there is a lot to look forward to. Soon, we will see the interior of Nashua come together as deck beams get installed and systems are put into place.
One thing we all take for granted during this stage is how much work goes into fairing the hull before painting. The goal is to have a bump free totally fair hull surface to allow the boat to move as quickly through the water as possible and this is all done by the grunt force of manual labor. Using 2ft long sanding boards, workers move back and forth over the hull in a criss cross pattern to get rid of any high or low shapes in the hull. When the hull is smooth and fair, multiple coats of an epoxy primer get applied to the hull with fairing in between.
We thought it was a good idea at this time to have RMI mold splashes from the hull shape. These will be used as a sort of stand to support the boat in the off season and if we ever decide to ship the boat somewhere. We took advantage of doing this while the boat was still upside down. This pushed the turn over date forward a couple days, but we will be glad we did it later on.
Terry and I drove up from Newport meeting Jeremy, Russ, and Wendy who had just flown in from California to see the boat turn and partake in some critical decision making. It was a cold morning, with forecasts in the single digits and snow on the ground, and Nashua came out of the red RMI building just after lunch. She was turned over in the travel lift and placed onto a trailer to be brought back inside for the first time in the upright position. It was amazing to see the boat transform from mostly just a shape to a beautiful utilitarian object.
With the boat right side up we all go the chance to inspect the interior before any systems get installed and take note at a few items that are different with this boat then we saw on Equus, mostly the wooden floor structure which was an added bronze feature on Equus.
Now, it is a new year and there is a lot to look forward to. Soon, we will see the interior of Nashua come together as deck beams get installed and systems are put into place.
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