March Photos

The engine installed and under cover to protect from dust

The head in installed and the cabinets being built

The cockpit bin taken out of the mold.  You can see all the old staple holes from when it was being glued up

The cabin house built and sealed

Mock ups for the instrument panels, winch placement, and traveler line in the cockpit

Deck framing looking forward

Deck framing looking aft

Teak is laid out on the sole of the cockpit

Some beautiful joints!

A detail of the cabin house

A detail of the port lights

John goes over the cabin house plans with the builder

The keel is in the shop with deadwood and keel bolts attached

A beautiful SS ferule that RMI made for the jib up/down lead

Another beautiful piece crafted by RMI, the headstay tang

The lower unit of the sail drive sticking out the bottom of the boat

A view from the bow looking aft

Detail of the forepeak construction

John measures out the bookshelves, which will be pushed back a few inches

A mock up of the intended interior paneling.  After some modifications it will look similar but different

Wide angle shot of the boat

The cabin house gets its sliding rails attached

Insulation for the ice box is put in place

The icebox is installed

February Write Up

The team at RMI have been making outstanding progress on Nashua and show no signs of letting up.

Since the hull was turned over in January, we have seen them complete the installation of the deck beams, build the cockpit pan and seats, build the coach house, install the engine and fuel tank, complete the casting of the keel and attach deadwood, start interior construction, as well as priming and painting the anchor locker and interior.

Its a lot to list out like that, but it seems as if its literally happening that fast.  Things that are happening behind the scenes include electronics installation, radar mount construction, mast layup at Hall Spars, and sail design and initial construction with Quantum and Hood Sails.  I look forward to a visit tomorrow with much more to report over the course of the next month.

Febraury

Deck beams are installed, and primer is being applied to the anchor locker

The engine bed is installed and cut out for the sail drive is finished

Priming the stern area and prepping for cockpit installation

Using a batten to fair the deck beams before the sub deck goes on

Here is the jig used to build the cockpit pan and seats

The cabin house top is built and primed

 A view of the deck beams with openings for the foreward hatch and cabin house

The teak cabin house sides being built

Here is the cabin house mostly completed and ready for installation

 Nice detailing and fit

The companionway entrance

Here is the cockpit pan primed and ready.  It is upside down here

The lead keel with deadwood attached and ready for fairing

The engine is installed and connected to the fuel tank

Another view of the engine installation

The interior getting fit for settees and paint

December through January Write up

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.

December through January Photos

The cold molding laminating begins.  1/8" cedar laminates are glued on in diagonal strips

Once all the laminates are on, glue is applied between the laminates and the existing hull then air tight sealed in plastic.  A vacuum is hooked up to the "bag" and sucks all the air out and creates enough compression to squeeze any extra glue out to create a perfect gluing surface

A final layer of fore and aft planking goes on

And gets faired down

Here the teak transom laminate is being attached

Once the boat is completely fair, it is coated with a epoxy primer, which then gets faired even further

January 9th, hull turning day.  Terry inspects the splashes that were molded to Nashua's hull that will be used to support then boat during storage

John shows off the interior of the boat before it is flipped

The stem sticks up from the bow.  This will get trimmed to fit later

A nice look at the beautiful forestay chainplate installation

Ready to be flipped!

The boat is pulled outside on rollers and placed in the travel lift.  One strap goes up and the other goes down and turn she does!

A hydraulic trailer is needed to take her off the straps and bring her inside right side up

A view of the hull from inside the office

The team meeting with RMI after the flip to discuss some crucial details

A closer inspection is made of the interior now that she is right side up

A detail of the stem and anchor locker

All that is needed here is a wheel!

One nice feature that Equus didn't have are these beautiful floors

One final view

A deck beam gets installed midships

Looking aft, another deck beam is installed

This is the area the engine will sit in with the engine bed mocked up in pencil lower right