Lille Ø

At least the Spindrift 9 plans say that the inspection hatch is optional.

Didn't check the state of the Perfection yet. Since this is basically "bilge space" we just put one coat of Epifanes monourethane that we had lying around. Idea was that by painting it white, it'll be easier to find things if we stash something there. Also, nice to see that the hatches we bought fit just right: Forward flotation chamber we'll keep as just epoxy as there is no inspection hatch.

Today is somewhat of a rest day after last night's party. We painted the aft flotation chambers white, and glassed the forward bulkhead.

Today's project was to fillet and glass the aft and bow flotation chambers, and to epoxy paint the inside of the aft ones to get it ready for painting and closing. Tonight it is the club's travel story night where we and others will tell about the adventures from 2023. So that's it for today with the dinghy.

Well, having a tight deadline helps ?. We need to be out of this workspace by early February, and the boat won't fit through the door in one piece. And of course the dinghy needs to be finished by beginning of April when we head towards Norway. We still have a jar of Perfection left over from our deck rebuild, so that's the plan. If that is expired or runs out, then we'll see, as Perfection isn't available on the market any longer. We'd like the color to match our deck. We're planning to apply Kiwigrip to the inside bottom.

After lunch we also tack welded the forward bulkhead. King plank and seat tops are there just to help keep things aligned. Now into the lovely winter weather and to the embassy to vote.

Yes, the plan is to sail it. The club apparently has an abandoned Europe dinghy rig that we may be able to adopt. Today we tack welded the stern seats.

Spoiler alert: We built the dinghy in exactly a month (CNC cutting on January 6th, splashed on February 7th). The dinghy both rows beautifully, and fits on our deck without problems. The build is documented on our website as well as in this thread. On to the original build log: In the beginning of January we started building the Spindrift 9N as the new dinghy for our cruising boat. Until now we’ve been cruising the Baltic, and so our little banana-boot (think Porta Boot) has been enough as a dinghy. But it’s really a one person dinghy with only some 5cm of freeboard with us both and gear on board. For next summer’s trip to Scotland we wanted something more capable. We like to row, so a hard dinghy was the only real option. And only a nesting one would fit the deck of our 31ft double-ender. So here we are. Over last year we transferred the plans to CAD, and now on Jan 6th cut the plywood for the boat at the Cadus makerspace. 6mm okume marine plywood from BootsHolz.de. Solid wood parts are spruce that we ripped and sawed at the workshop of the c-base hackerspace. Transporting the parts, especially the gunwales on public transport was an experience! We had originally booked a spot in a boat hall for the build. But now there’s a cold spell, and so it would’ve been too cold for epoxy there. Since the sailing club restaurant is closed for the winter, we were allowed to build the dinghy in one of their (heated) storage rooms instead. On Jan 14th we opened the butterfly. We decided to go with zip ties, and that has worked pretty well. The main mistake we’ve had so far was not marking the position of the bulkheads when the sheets were still flat. So getting the right (fingers crossed!) position for the nesting bulkhead has been a fiddly process. We also built the cradle too low, making for awkward working positions. Now the inside seams are filleted and glassed, and we will continue installing the flotation chambers.