When Stephen decided to do a two color boat, I had no idea how much work that was going to turn out to be.  Now, neither of us have ever spray painted anything before, so it was a learn as you go part of the project.  And boy did we learn!!  First we learned a lot of what not to do.  I won't go into all the details but detailing was another very time-consuming part.  Overall, the end product looks really good.

There have been several requests lately for details on the PDX articulating sprit configuration.  The set up is both exceedingly simple and highly functional.  The group looked at the "on deck" sprit set up and decided against that direction for a variety of reasons; appearance, clutter, complexity, and interference with the forestay were all among them.  The below deck articulating sprit is quite likely easier than a below deck fixed sprit to fabricate and install because you don't have any of the "aligning" issues to contend with, and is much cleaner than the on deck option.

The "structures" of the boat are finished, so now it is down to the detail work.  Other than the "skinning" of the boat with fiberglass, this is a pretty mundane and time consuming process.  Lots of filling, sanding, filling, fairing, etc until the boat has no overt bumps or hollows.  Then the fiberglass goes on to the decks and the boat gets flipped over an we get to start the process all over again on the bottom and hull sides... horray!  Since this really is a pretty boring process, let's just skip ahead to when the glass went on.

This is actually a pretty fun process; well frustrating at times to get it just right, but usually fairly enjoyable.  Once the glass is on and wetted out we give the epoxy a few hours to start to get tacky, then we spread very  thin layers of epoxy lightly thickened with micro-balloons into the weave; repeating as each coating starts to get tacky until the weave of the fiberglass is completely filled.

With the weave filled we do a little light sanding and fair out the seams from the fiberglass then we buy beer and pizza and invite over all of the other local i550 builders and our friends to flip the boat.  It goes something like this:

Good thing we've got someone here to give us direction...

With the boat no upside down and back into the shop bow first we can start the long and mundane task of filling and fairing the bottom. Fortunately this boat has minimal to no hollows and bulges as a result of our upgraded cradle.  We've posted the measurements in the forum for those interested in building their own cradle to ensure a perfect and true bottom shape.

The boat undergoes the same process on the bottom as it did on the deck.  Fill, fair, fill, sand, fair, then glass.

With the glass "skin" on the boat it was time again to fill the weave with epoxy & micro-balloons.

Then sand and fill and dimples and prepare for painting.

Once the bottom was perfect we were ready for primer and more sanding.

Then a little filler in the pin holes; more sanding and we were ready for VC Epoxy on the bottom and some gray primer on the hull sides.

Now the fun of sanding, sanding, and more sanding on the bottom until it is perfect; then polish it to a mirror finish.  In the mean time, Dave has been busy cranking out our carbon fiber keel foils.  Each half weighs just about nothing.  They will be filled with foam and the keel bolts will be bedded into the bases before the halves are put together and faired and painted and the keel bulbs are added.  Still a lot more work to do to get the PDX 5 out sailing by summer, but work is progressing quickly.

After flipping the hull, it is back to fairing and sanding.  It seems like an endless process. We hope it pays off in the end and gives us a nice smooth shape.

The keel provided a bit of a challenge.  We cut a gage out of plexiglas and on the advice of Dave Hickman, we decided to do the keel in two halves. This made it easier for shaping, fairing, and installing the keelbolts.  Once done, we will epoxy the two halves together and make it whole. Then, on to the carbon fiber outer skin.  Getting there.

Stephen and I have been sanding away. I think we laid the skim coat on a bit too thick, as we had to work really hard to get it back down to the cloth layer.  However, it came out really smooth and probably ended up being worth the effort.

After one and a half weeks of fairing, we are now glassing in the cockpit and deck areas.

Stephen and I have been making progress.  It is really a godsend that we have the PDX builders at the same stage as we are.  They provide much needed insight of having been there before, they know the sequence of events that need to take place before proceeding to the next step and have saved us a lot of rip out and rebuild.  Thanks Eric, Dave, and Brian.

With the interior structures finished it was time to turn our attention to the decking and doing a lot of ticky-tacky clean-up inside the boat and coating the entire interior with 2 coats of epoxy.  Why 2 coats?  Because we want to make 100% sure that every nook & cranny and evey part of the wood is completely sealed.