During the last weeks, we managed to finish the hull to a stage where we could take it to the towing tank for the resistance test. First step was to remove the laminated hull from the mould which was quite a challenge – resulting in the near destruction of the mold an a lot of brutal force.
 |
 |
 |
 |
sanding and filling…
 |
 |
 |
 |
The positive mold was originally planned to be just the ‘mold for the negative mold’. Half way through, we decided to skip the additional work and therefore laminated only a few layers of carbon fabric on the outside of the mold. Another 3 layers where added on the inside later on, thus ensuring the final shape does not vary too much from the original CAD model. This step also was a nice opportunity, to make good use of all the trimmed excess fabric from the previous steps.
 |
 |
 |
 |
We applied vacuum again for another 12 hours to let the composite cure in the desired shape. After removing the vacuum film, we noticed a fair amount of work coming towards us, as we did not use any peel ply or release film. The result were resin channels caused by the creases in the vacuum film which looked beautiful, but had do be removed manually.
 |
 |
 |
 |
In order to finally make the hull waterproof we applied a filler and gelcoat. To give the boat a nicer look we decided to add red particles to the gelcoat. It not only looks nice – not showing the black carbon fibre will also help to not overheat in the sun. After the hardening process of the gelcoat the hull was sanded again to get it as smooth as possible.
Even if the Hull is not finished yet, it is now prepared for the first contact with water!
 |
 |
 |
 |
