Levelling each hull using a water level aligned to the water lines drawn on the insides of each hull. Red dye has been added to make the water level easy to use. The water level is 20m long so can also be used to level the hulls to each other when joining them together.

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Scarf joints in plywood need to be at least 8 times as long as the thickness of the ply; for the bulkheads this means greater than 72 mm. Using the jig shown, this means a big circular saw to give the required depth of cut. In our case the blade diameter was 235mm. The jig is simple but misalignment by even 1 or 2 mm can give a poor result - because the angle one is cutting is so acute.

If you are not careful, the saw blade can climb out of the cut giving an uneven thickness (this can be seen bottom left) - one has to keep a firm grip and a slow steady motion. The scarf joint can always be tidied up and made more even afterwards, using a belt sander. In practice some joints were better than others! Even the worst survived stress testing - i.e. offcuts were flexed to prove the ply broke before the joint. This is thanks to the marvellous properties of epoxy rather than to any craftsmanship.

The reason for doing the scarf joints is to avoid having to use butt joints, which look ugly.

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The Eclipse plans do not give offsets for the transom bulkhead. The profile of the hull at the point the transom has to be fitted must therefore be measured. This is done using a "Joggle Stick" and a "tally board". The tally board is fixed at the same point and in the same plane as the bulkhead. The straight edge of the Joggle Stick gives the direction to a point on the hull indicated by the point of the Joggle Stick; the numbered teeth of the Joggle Stick give the distance to that point. Once a number of points have been measured in this way the tally board is removed, laid onto a sheet of ply and the points transferred; a panel pin into every point and a bendy piece of wood and a pencil is all that is required to mark out the hull shape for jig-sawing. The Joggle Stick can be made out of ply, but using 3mm aluminium gives a more permanent version of this very useful tool.

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Three sole supports (called "floors" in nautical terminology, just to be confusing) are added to each hull 500mm apart going aft from Bulkhead 3. The central section of each hull (between Bulkheads 3 & 4) will eventually have 5 floors, but only 3 can be put in at this time. The other 2 will butress the daggerboard case when it is fitted. The space under the cabin sole in each hull will be sealed, forming a watertight compartment. There will be a small inspection hatch in the aft end of the cabin sole; there are limber holes in the floors, on the centre line, to allow water from any leak forward of the inspection hatch to flow aft and therefore be visible through the hatch.

The "tab" on Bulkhead 3 in this (the port) hull will be connected by a sheet of plywood of the same width to an identical tab on the starboard hull. This construction forms the forward bulkhead of the bridgedeck cabin, which lies between the hulls. There are larger tabs on Bulkhead 4 with a similar purpose; the bulkhead formed from these tabs (with some help from other sheets of ply) will form the aft bulkhead to the bridgedeck cabin, in the middle of which will eventually be a door giving access to the cabin from the cockpit. Top of Page














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Starting to fix the plywood sheets to the strigers and bulkheads using 1" silicon bronze screws and epoxy rollered onto the inside of the sheets and onto the stringers and bulkheads. The hulls are sufficiently identical that we were able to mark out one plywood sheet, held up against one side of one hull, and then cut and drill four sheets with them all fitting - near enough!

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The plywood sheets accentuate the curves making the hulls look much more like a yacht. The outer stem is also being laminated and shaped.

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Building the transom is a fiddly and therefore time-consuming job. A plus point though is that it uses up a lot bits of plywood left over from from the bulkheads and hull sides. Note the reinforcement for the rudder hinge.

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After much filling, fairing and sanding of the plywood/knuckle-gunwale joint and of the stem/topsides joint, the topsides are glassed. A much lighter weave cloth was used on the topsides - 300 g/sq m biaxial cloth not the 600 g/sq m used on the cedar strip. This cloth is much less robust than the heavier weave and can distort if wetting out with a brush. This is why Mac is wetting out with a roller.

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Sanding the hulls and fairing them took 10 man-days of effort! This is a little unbelievable since I thought they were looking pretty good before. However, the weave of the cloth was still showing in places and there were a surprising number of bumps and dwells. Painting was quite quick, using a non-toxic water based paint from www.mythicpaint.co.uk. The non-slip paint, of a darker green, is Safecote Marine Anti-Slip Paint.

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Fitting Bulkhead No. 2 using fillets of thickened epoxy. Once the ply topsides have been added the middle of Bulkhead 2 will be removed. A bunk base will then be added between Bulkheads 1 and 3. One of Bulkhead 3 can be seen on top of the starboard hull the other is still being worked on in the foreground. Details on how the bulkheads are made and how they differ from the plans (and why) can be seen in bulkheads.pdf.

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Using a glue gun, small blocks of wood can quickly be fitted as guides to help position the bulkheads and to keep them in position while epoxying them into place. When applying fillets of thickened epoxy, the blocks can easily be removed using a sharp tap with a hammer.

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The transom bulkhead is positioned prior to epoxying. Forward of it are Bulkhead 6, Bulkhead 5 and Bulkhead 4. The central part of Bulkhead 5 will be removed after fitting the plywood topsides, like Bulkhead 2; a double bunk will then be added between Bulkheads 4 & 6.

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The cabin sole has now been fitted in the port hull, which is when I discovered I had made my first major mistake. The headroom between the cabin sole and the top of Bulkhead 4 in only 1800mm, a touch under 5' 11" - after one takes into account the deck stringers, insulation and headlining this will be about 5' 9". This is the headroom in the main double cabins and the heads.

I should have spotted this; however, I am so used to thinking of my height in feet and inches that "1800mm" did not ring any alarm bells! Also, I had believed the designer's words "full standing headroom throughout" and did not think to check. I do not believe that 5' 9" is "full standing headroom".

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At last it looks as if we are building a boat! The stringers and sheer gunwale have been put in place. For each stringer and the gunwale we have scarfed together enough timber to create one complete piece. The scarf joints were done with a router, a suitable jig and epoxy for the strongest possible bond. The stringers/gunwale were screwed and glued to the bulkheads using silicon bronze screws and Gorilla Glue.

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I finally get to shape the transom, which has caused me much insomnia. To do this I have to cut through the compound curve of the hull below the knuckle in a straight line with the top of the transom bulkhead. I also have to cut a slot 100mm wide from the stern to the aft point of the skeg and add framing to support the ply sheets covering the transom. Doing the first hull took me 6 hours. The second hull only 4, which shows how much time one can save doing the hulls together.

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Portlights which opened outwards were designed and made for the outside of the two hulls - 3 on each side. The reasons behind the design and the details of the making can be seen in construction_details.pdf.

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It is now a year later! The deck is on, the daggerboard cases are installed and a lot of the internal fitting-out has been done - see other web pages for the details. We have decided to do the final sanding and fairing in the boatshed rather than at a boatyard. It is a big job so it is better we get it done while under cover. We will follow this with 3 coats of paint; which will need touching-up later but that will be quick to do. Another reason to paint now is to protect the epoxy from UV damage when the hulls are moved outside.

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Here is a view of the starboard bow reflecting the sunlight shining between the slats of the barn and through the polytunnel. The bows did take a lot of fairing. If one adopts Richard Woods' philosophy of a 50 foot boat (i.e. it looks good from a distance of 50 feet) then this process could have been a little quicker. However, I am pleased with the result - perhaps I have a 30 foot boat? This colour green sets off the rubbing strake very well, I think!

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