The aft deck has now been epoxied onto the sheer planks and the inwales that I installed recently. The red foam thing has a hole carved out on the bottom of it so that it can sit over the backstay eyebolt and yet hold down the deck evenly.  This is from the scoop deck area, and shows the shroud eyebolts. Here's how the aft deck looks after the epoxy has cured and the edges have been sanded. Yes, you'll be able to see the edges of the plywood deck, but it's relatively clean look with crisp lines for the layers. If I ever do another boat I might try to inset the deck and glue it onto the inwales only, and then round over the sheer to meet flush with the deck. That would be a better look. Aloha!

Haven't been posting much, but progress is continuing on the Corbie 5 IOM. I've installed the transom plate. It's a very think lamination of mahogany veneer and a thin sheet of, I think, Alaskan yellow cedar that has had the boat's name laser cut into it. It gives a fun three-dimensional effect when polished. The scoop deck has been installed, and now I'm installing thin strips along the inside of the sheer to act as additional epoxying surfaces for the foredeck and aft deck. Off to an IOM regatta in Renton , WA this weekend to checkout current IOM rigging ideas. Aloha!

Ok, fine... I've given up on my artsy deck idea as I just couldn't get it to work exactly as I wanted. I've moved to a much more conventional idea, but still wanted a touch of bling, so I incorporated the design name into the deck. It's two layers of 1/64" (.4mm) plywood laminated together. The top layer has Corbie 5 cut into it to reveal the bottom layer which is painted red. The top layer also has some degree markings, mostly just for looks, and the jib swivel holes cut out. They were laminated over the form that I made. It held its shape well and will be easy to epoxy to the hull. Here's how it looks just sitting on the hull. After laminating, I added a small amount of epoxy to the cutouts. When that was dry I sanded it flush and then put on a layer of .73 oz cloth. It was later sanded down and is now ready for epoxying to the hull. Lots more small detaily things to do still but I'll shortly be epoxying all three decks to the hul

I've been making slow but steady progress on my Corbie 5 IOM sailboat lately. It's been a lot of small, detaily things that you have to do though before you can add the more noticeable things. For example; I've added the shroud eyebolts and the backstay eyebolt. I did also paint my bulb, and it turned out really well, albeit very light... it's only 2445 grams with the fin. Oh well... it's my first IOM. Here's how the hull looks now. The interior is done. The winch mounting plate is mounted to the winch and not in this picture. I've also since torn out the turning block at the aft next to the rudder tube. I've decided to go with above deck rigging on this boat instead. The hull at this point weighs 553 grams if you include the winch mounting plate not pictured.  More later! Aloha!

I made an IOM boat stand! The plans are from David Jensen in Bellevue, WA, USA. I found the plans through someone else's blog here , and a model sailboat club from Australia here . It was pretty straightforward to build. My only contribution to the design is that I laser cut the cradle out of 1/8" Lite Ply. I made eight copies, and then epoxy laminated two sets of four each. Turned out really well. If you wish to laser cut your own set, here is my DWG file . You'll have to have your own laser cutter, or send the job to a laser cutting company like National Balsa . Here are the original plans , and here are the original plans for just the cradle . Thanks to David Jensen!! Note that in the picture below, my boat is not finished! Yikes. You can't see it in this image, but there's a small chuck of self-stick foam behind the bulb to protect the bulb. I'll eventually incorporate some Velcro or a strap of some sort to hold the bulb in place so

Earlier I drilled through my two rudder positioning holes in the bulkheads and through the bottom of the hull and epoxied in the rudder tube. To my happy surprise, the rudder perfectly lines up with the fin! Phew. I guess my fin wasn't out of line anyway (as I thought in an earlier post). Again... phew! Then I shaped the rudder and installed it. This will be yet another instance of most IOM builders shaking their heads at me, but I used 1/8" (3mm) stainless steel rod instead of 4mm. It perfectly fit the slot in my rudder, it's lighter, and is plenty strong. 1/8" ss rod is used in Star 45's and Vintage Marbleheads, and should be just fine for a smaller and lighter IOM swinging a carbon rudder. (That said, I'm fully ready to admit I'm wrong and may find out someday when my rudder breaks off!) I used my blowtorch and put a small bend in the end of the rod. I know that some builders only notch their posts, or put a couple flat spots in them and d

I've made loads of progress on the Corbie 5 since my last post. Most of it has gone well, but I've had a few not so good things happen too. I've finished the fin box and installed all the bulkhead work around it. It looks like a lot, but doesn't weigh toooo much. It should keep the fin in place though, and it includes a raked mast step slot, a rudder servo mounting plate, and a winch mounting plate. These two images show the deck just sitting on top. You can see how much access there is to the winch and rudder servos. Should be OK. This picture shows the shroud chain plates being epoxied in place. I'm a bit concerned that they won't be strong enough. I'm used to "locking" in the chain plates mechanically by slotting them into nearby frames. This seems to be the way it's done though. Gulp. I used a good amount of thickened epoxy, so fingers crossed they'll hold. When I installed the fin though, I noticed that it'