Flashheart hull panels are now on the frame.

As Europe seams to lack wind at the moment I decided to spend Saturday in the workshop rather than drifting around. I used my new €4 glue gun to hold down the panels where the double sided sticky was not holding well, and got the last hull panel on the frame.

The build technique is fast and easy but the hull is not as fair as I would like. Partly this is because there is not enough timber in the frame, and partly because the twist in the panels induces stresses that comes out as panel waves. I think a future version 2 should address both these issues if the build technique is to be the same.

I think I will have to glue on bits of foam to help fair out a couple of hollows. I am not sure how well this will work because the foam is very delicate, but at least it sands very well. I could just laminate on the outside skin and then add lots of filler but this would be heavy. Therefore I have to invest some time in shaping foam.



It is hard to build a boat in a couple of weekends and then compare the build quality to a female molded boat. The effort involved in building a female mold is too much and it is too expensive for my one off home build. It also does not allow you to alter the design between boats without lots of cutting shutting and filling. I should be able to get a reasonable build quality in a fraction of the build time, therefore I have to learn to turn a blind eye to the slight fairness imperfections that will not slow me down, especially as the boat is supposed to be in the air.