Ikaroa Fairing the Hull, One Slow Bit at a Time I’m fairing the hull with glass bubbles and colloidal silica, working through it 20–25 cm at a time. It is smooth enough, but painfully slow, and I’m already dreaming of sanding.
Ikaroa Protecting the Keel with Aramid Tape The heat slowed me down, but I got the final epoxy layer on and added aramid tape to protect the most vulnerable parts of the keel from abrasion. Next came fairing compound—and then the same work again on the second hull, the beauty of catamarans.
Ikaroa Surforming Every Bump Before Aramid I’m smoothing every tiny bump from the laminated surface before adding the final glass and aramid layers. The aramid will protect the edges when we start dragging Ikaroa onto beaches.
Ikaroa Ten Hours to Laminate a Hull I spent ten uninterrupted hours laminating the hull, with no coffee and a few mistakes to repair. Exhausted but very happy, I’m moving on to epoxy, aramid tape and the next hull.
Ikaroa Laminating the Hulls Through the Night I spent the night draping glass fabric over the hulls, working around the heat so the epoxy would not cure on sight. Once the reinforcement and fairing are done, I can get back to our favourite pastime: sanding.
Ikaroa Getting Ready to Laminate the Lower Hulls We’re preparing to laminate the lower hulls, with an exciting day—and several more—of work ahead. I’m also planning regular build videos, with early access and other extras available through Patreon.
Ikaroa Sanding Both Hulls, One Square Inch at a Time I spent the day sanding both hulls, vacuuming every square inch and filling the scratches, uneven fillets and stubborn screw holes. Now I’m trying to keep the tent warm enough to sand everything again and wash the hulls by evening.
Ikaroa Rounding the Hulls Before Laminating I’m finishing the hulls, rounding edges and bows before giving the workshop a serious clean for laminating. We also helped put Krister’s BALDUR mast up by hand—a terrifying but successful five-person operation.
Ikaroa Flexible Iroko Battens for the Keel I’ve resumed work on the hulls and started preparing half-inch iroko battens for the keel, which bend beautifully into shape. We also helped our friend launch Baldur before her mast went up.
Journal Still Here, Still Going Strong We’ve had a couple of setbacks and slowdowns, but we’re still around and coming back for more. Usual project commentary resumes next week.
Ikaroa Our Plan for Ikaroa as Sail Cargo We’re letting you in on our plan to use Ikaroa as a 100 per cent clean, all-electric sail cargo vessel. I’ve also found partners in EcoClipper, who are already working towards a modern sail cargo industry.
Ikaroa My Last Pesach in the Workshop This was my second Pesach in the workshop, and the last one. Matzo before moving on.
Ikaroa Cornflakes, Coffee and Workshop Mornings My morning workshop routine involves microwaved cornflakes, coffee and repeatedly forgetting that coffee should come first. Fortunately, Adam gets there before me and leaves a hot cup waiting.
Ikaroa Making Room for Long Timber We moved our caravan out of the workshop to clear space for turning the hulls and handling long iroko and timber pieces. Now I can sort the plywood by thickness without shifting a tonne of it every time.
Ikaroa Testing a Flat-Pack Trailer by Bike We tested a flat-pack trailer by hauling about 40kg of supplies home by bike. It worked brilliantly—and should be useful aboard the boat later on.
Ikaroa MacGyvering Starlink Back to the Workshop After moving to Nimrod, I moved the office back to the workshop and reconnected Starlink with a suitably MacGyver-style setup. It works perfectly.
Ikaroa Our Onboard Storage Solution Arrives We’re getting ready to leave our winter hideout in Brighton and move back to Newhaven and Nimrod to step up work on IKAROA. Our onboard storage solution has arrived, with a couple of boxes each for our stuff.
Ikaroa Spring Arrives in the Workshop Today I switched the workshop air conditioner from heating to cooling for the first time this year. At 21°C, it was suddenly a little too warm for gluing that 11-metre piece of wood with epoxy.
Ikaroa Dry-Fitting the Remaining External Stringers I’m dry-fitting the remaining external stringers, while explaining why my apparently tidy workshop is mostly a photographic illusion. A few may get glued permanently today—but probably not all three.
Ikaroa Sanding the Bows Between Deliveries With epoxy work ruled out by a day of deliveries, I finished the bows and spent the day testing my new sanding board and mesh. It works a treat.
Ikaroa Outer Stringers Before Lamination I cut and epoxy-soaked two outer stringers, ready to glue them into place with plenty of pilot holes. That means another round of crawling under the hull before lamination can begin.
Ikaroa Straightening the Hull for Stringers I took a short break from filling gaps to fix a damaged stringer batten and straighten the hull’s wobbles. It worked a treat, and she’s starting to look like a boat.
Ikaroa Defining the Hull Edge with Filler After a week of angry seas and three named storms, I finally got back to the workshop. A more fluid second layer of epoxy filler worked beautifully, and the hull edge is now taking its final shape.
Ikaroa Sanding the Hull Through Storm Eunice While Storm Eunice raged outside, I spent a surprisingly calm day in the workshop sanding the hull towards its final shape. There’s still more filling and sanding to come, accompanied by Tevye.
Ikaroa Filling the Holes in My Hulls I’ve been filling the gaps and holes in the hull panels, getting them smooth and ready for laminating. Madness continues.
