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.
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 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 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 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.
Ikaroa The Hull Sides Are Finally Fitted After a long and painful job, I’ve fitted and laminated all the hull sides and got the workshop tidy again. Next I’m making fillets and sending Adam to the workshop for his first weekend of laminating both hulls.
Ikaroa Four Stern Panels and More Sanding With Maciek’s help, I dry-fitted four stern panels and finally completed the hull sides on both lower hulls. Now I’m sanding, filling and preparing the panel ends for glass tape—because apparently boatbuilding is mainly sanding.
Ikaroa Making the Workshop Tent Silver After three weeks refreshing my graphic design skills, I’m back in the workshop upgrading our tent. It’s going silver, much warmer, and should cut our heating costs by at least half.
Ikaroa I’m Upgrading Our Workshop Tent After three weeks refreshing my graphic design skills, I’m back in the workshop upgrading our tent. It’s going silver, much warmer, and should cut our heating costs roughly in half.
Ikaroa Lesson Number Zero With a Jigsaw I learned lesson number zero in using a jigsaw: check what’s underneath before cutting, especially when it’s a cement floor. The blade produced an interesting effect.
Tech Testing Starlink Before It Lands on Ikaroa I’m testing internet from Mars before it later lands on our boat.
Ikaroa Dry-Fitting Ikaroa’s Hull Side I spent another day dry-fitting, sanding, cleaning and drilling a plywood hull panel before it could finally be glued in place. And people wonder why boatbuilding takes so long.
Ikaroa The Remaining Hull Panels Finally Fit I moved into our winter shelter and worked through the remaining hull panels. After all the stress and mistakes, it feels great to see the major joins fitting snugly and precisely.
Tech Starlink Arrives in the Workshop Something very interesting—and extremely important—arrived in our workshop earlier than expected: Starlink.
Ikaroa Fitting Plywood to the Superstructure I’m sealing the shape of Ikaroa’s lower hulls, and fitting these large plywood panels has been the most stressful part of the build so far. The last central panel is finally fixed, so I’m taking a week away before returning to finish the hull sides and laminate them.
Tech A Bread Maker for Our Gluten-Free Galley We’re testing a bread maker for our gluten-free galley, with timed baking and modest power use making fresh bread possible at the boatyard. I just need to remember to switch it on.
Ikaroa There Is No End to Sanding I’m tidying the stringers, sanding the backbone side battens and filling all those little holes before the hull sides go on. Laminating may offer a brief respite, but more sanding is already waiting afterwards.
Ikaroa Long Battens for Ikaroa’s Stringers I explain why I chose better boatbuilding timber for Ikaroa, including long made-to-order battens that mean I only need to scarf one stringer.
Ikaroa Too Much Epoxy, Too Much Heat I mixed too much epoxy at once and watched the exothermic reaction turn it into a smoking block, melting the plastic spatula. For bigger jobs, I’ve learned that less at a time is definitely better.
Ikaroa Both Lower Hulls Standing Together I have both lower hulls standing together for their final sanding, making sure the keels and skegs are absolutely identical. They already look sizeable, though the upper hulls and cabin trunks will take the boat to 11.6 metres.
Ikaroa Correcting a Plywood Butt Strap I used a Japanese handsaw to correct one of my blunders: an epoxy-bonded plywood butt strap that was 9mm too wide and left no room for the bottom of a bulkhead.
Ikaroa Epoxy Coating Bulkheads and Laminating the Backbone The monster tent is keeping us warm enough to resume work in the South Coast winter. We’ve started epoxy-coating the bulkheads and laminating the backbone elements together, so out come the nuclear reactor suits.
